Kingdom Hearts: Different Hearts
by Arganaut
Summary: A crisis that threatens all of existence has forced a diverse group of individuals away from their respective worlds. Will they aid Sora, or will they fall to the darkness? Written by: Arganaut Cowritten by: Zoneshifter D
1. Chapter 1

Kingdom Hearts: Different Hearts

Hey all, Arganaut here with the latest installment of Kingdom Hearts: Different Hearts! Anyway, my co-writer and I were very concerned about the lack of Sora in the opening chapters of the Story, so, upon his suggestion, we began reworking the beginning of the story so that this would be the opening chapter.

It was what was previously chapter 5 in the previous version of the story, so the Guard Armor battle will occur in this chapter. I hope you all enjoy the new chapter, and I hope that those of you KH fans not used to my work will be more satisfied with this new opening.

Chapter 1: The Gathering

We now look at the small makeshift arena in the middle of Traverse Town. There we see a white duck with a yellow bill, and yellow legs and feet. He was wearing a blue hat, along with a blue outfit to go along with it. He had a strange staff in his right hand. He was shooting fireballs at groups of 'Soldier' creatures, giving a quick laugh when he would destroy one. His name was Donald Duck, the court Magician of Disney Castle.

Very close to the duck, there was a taller black dog, with floppy ears, a rather large snout, and an oval black nose. He had worn a rather small, for his head, yellow hat with a green band on it. He had a green long sleeved shirt with a small black sleeveless vest over it. He also wore yellow, baggy pants. His shoes were greenish, with metal plating protecting the toes. He carried with him a blue-gray metal shield, with yellow rings on it, and a black symbol that resembled that of a mouse head. His name was Goofy, and he is the Captain of the Royal Guard of Disney Castle

The final person was a young teen, with spiky brown hair and blue eyes. He was currently wearing a pair of red shorts, and a red shirt, with a black and white hoodie jacket over it. On his hands he wore white gloves with blue trim, and large, and I mean large, yellow shoes with dark gray soles. He was holding a very peculiar weapon his hand. It was a large key-shaped object which, though the boy did hold like a sword, looked more like it would be used as a club, as most of the sword was rather rounded, not a single sharp edge on the thing. The color of the key's shaft was grey, and was connected to a yellow hilt and hand guard. It had a grey key-chain on the end of it, its shape being the same as the symbol on Goofy's shield. His name was Sora, and he was the master of a legendary weapon known as the Keyblade.

Sora was having a rather bad and strange day. First, his friends Kairi and Riku disappear at their home on the Destiny Islands. Then, after his island gets sucked up into this huge ball of darkness, he finds himself in some town that he's never been in before. Then he ends up fighting this brown-haired guy, named Leon, or Squall, who beats him senseless. Then he's told that he's this legendary warrior who's meant to kill these creatures, or Heartless, as he was told.

And as if this wasn't enough, he heard these explosions and these screams to go along with them afterwards, Sora was afraid that he was slowly becoming insane. But, that was not all! Next, while he was in the middle of being chased by these Heartless, the duck and the dog fell out of nowhere, and landed on himÉ then started talking about his Keyblade. And now they were in the middle of fighting more Soldier Heartless.

ÅeThings couldn't get any worse, or stranger.' Sora thought as he cut through another Soldier Heartless. Sora looked over to Donald, the magician, who was currently working on another spell.

"Hey, how are you holding up on magic?" Sora asked, still a little stunned that he was using a word like 'magic', after all, back on Destiny Islands, magic was supposed to be the product of an overly active imagination, not that he didn't think that being able to launch balls of fire from a wand wasn't cool.

Said feathered magician cast another Fire spell at another Heartless, one that had rushed at him and, quite frankly, got dangerously close to him. He looked back at Sora with an irked expression on his face. "I'm fine, and I'd be better if you wouldn't distract me," he replied somewhat grumpily as he turned back, only to scream in sheer shock as he was confronted by a Soldier Heartless' claws. He fell back to avoid the first slash, and hastily tried to prepare a spell before it could ready another.

But before either the Soldier Heartless or Donald could react, a shield came screaming by, slamming into the Soldier's neck, dissipating the evil creature in a second. Donald watched as the shield made a rather abrupt U-turn and return to its owner, Goofy. The Royal Guard Captain looked at his friend with the same old Goofy look, despite the dire status of their situation. "Gawrsh, Donald, you should be more careful. If you get distracted like that, ya might end up without yer head," he said, almost as if he was instructing Donald, before bashing another Heartless over the head with his shield.

Donald merely steamed for a couple of seconds before carrying on with casting spells from afar, now trying to stay away from the Heartless. The three carried on in this manner for a while, trying their hardest to thwart the dark intentions of the creatures surrounding them. Sora swatted at yet another Heartless, before he again heard screaming. The Keyblade's Chosen merely ground his teeth together as he leapt far from the fight, trying to see if he could get the sound out of his head. To his surprise, the screams merely started becoming even louder. "Hey, guys, do you hear screaming?" he asked his new 'partners', hoping that the sounds really didn't come from his head.

It took a moment, but as soon as Sora mentioned the screams, Goofy's ears began perking up, as if trying to get a better read on them, and Donald just started looking around. "Yeah, I do hear something," the white duck spoke out slowly as he still looked around, still keeping a close eye on the Heartless who, at this point, also seemed quite distracted by the screaming. Goofy's ears twitched strongly as the black dog raised his brow.

"Gawrsh, it sounds like its coming from right above us," he said in an amazed tone, causing his fellow fighters to raise their own eyebrows, before looking up at the sky.

What they saw was a massive, screaming ball of people who were tightly packed together, and quickly plummeting down towards them. When the three of them were finally able to digest this bizarre occurrence, they quickly jumped out of the way of the screaming mass as it hit the ground. Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked over to where the giant pile of, presumably, people landed right in the middle of the square.

The pile moaned and groaned as the three of them began looking over the pile, trying to distinguish how many people were there, and who they were.

"Ooowww. this sucks," a voice came from the bottom of the six man pile. The voice yelped in pain as a foot that was on his head ground itself into him. "Hey, whose foot is that?" the same irritated voice asked as everyone shrugged.

"I dunno, let me check if it's my left one," a much lighter tone of voice said as he began stomping his foot, and was answered by the slightly girly cry from another part of the pile.

"That's not his head," Pain throbbed in what that voice said, and it was becoming apparent, to Sora at least, that the same voice was fighting to hold back tears.

"Oh, well, you shouldn't have called me a midget. It's called karma," the second voice spoke out in an arrogant tone as the previous voice muttered a curse. There was more foot tapping after that. "Is that it?" the voice asked as another part of the pile moved slightly.

"No, that one's on my stomach," a more prepubescent voice rang as silence overtook the pile. Suddenly, a loud slamming noise could be heard. "OW!! THAT'S MY STOMACH, YOU JERK!" the young voice shouted as the more proud voice began laughing.

"That's for calling me a midget, because you're the midget!" the voice shouted as he began laughing and everyone sighed. Just as Sora, Goofy, and Donald were about to move, two figures jumped from the top of the pile, both smirking as they had the good fortune of avoiding being placed closer to the bottom of the pile.

The first of the two figures was a guy who wasn't too much older than Sora was, by the Keyblade Wielder's own estimates. He was much taller than Sora though, almost standing about one and a half heads above our protagonist. His hair was a light brown and, except for some bangs that were over his forehead, stood straight up. His eyes were a somewhat auburn color, though they contained a particularly unique shine to them. He was dressed in a red, long-sleeved jacket with golden buttons going up the middle of it, and two white ribbon-like objects hung off his shoulders. At the end of the jacket sleeves were two red gloves, one of those gloves carrying upon them a strange purple orb that was surrounded by a golden design, which looked to be attached to the fabric. His pants, which were overalls, were dark brown in color, with brown-colored boots helping to highlight the contrast between his red half and brown half. At his sides were twin katanas holstered into brown holsters, something which fascinated Sora. After all, the only swords he had seen his entire life were wooden swords and the Keyblade, and, though he felt strangely nostalgic wielding it, it wasn't the same as holding a real sword like that.

The next guy was short. Heck, he was barely taller than Sora. His face betrayed no other emotion other than happiness, the smile in his purple eyes mystifying the Keyblade Master who would've expected panic or worry to overcome someone who had fallen from that sort of height. There was another thing on his face that struck Sora as somewhat strange; the cross-shaped scar on his left cheek. His hair was far stranger than the other guys, not because of its style, but because of its color, which was a light red. The style in which he wore it was loose hanging, with only a small bit of string tied low in the hair to keep it together. He wore a style of clothing Sora had never seen before. He wore some sort of purple robe overtop a white undershirt, along with some kind of white pants that fit loosely on the short man all the way down. He also wore a pair of black sock-like objects on his feet, with a strange pair of wooden sandals over them. The Destiny Islander also could help but notice the katana that this man, too, wore at his hip.

"Wow, Kenshin, that was a great idea, getting us to the top of them all so they'd break our fall!" the first figure said to the second figure, apparently named 'Kenshin'.

"Well, Lloyd, I knew that you were still injured, so I thought that getting you to the top would at least save you some unneeded harm," Kenshin said as he patted the former figure, Lloyd, on the shoulder. "Besides, thanks to you, I also got to the top of the pile, that I did," Kenshin said as he and Lloyd laughed lightly. Suddenly the pile began shaking.

"WHAT?!" the first voice the three had heard from the pile rang out as suddenly the pile was lifted up into the air, a sole figure underneath the remaining people. "You mean to tell me that you two bastards snuck your way to the top of the entire pile!" he shouted in anger as he threw the pile aside.

This figure was very tall, his dog ears easily reaching over Lloyd's own hair. 'Dog ears?' Sora thought as his eyes went wide and his face sagged a bit. He couldn't believe it, but it was true; this guy had, on top of his head, a pair of white dog ears that twitched and moved every now and then. Sora looked over to the other dog amongst them, Goofy, and found the Royal Knight just as stunned as he was. The ears peaked out over a mane of long, white hair, hair as white as Donald's feathers. His eyes were a somewhat perplexing color; they almost looked like a dark yellow. He wore a similar outfit to the Kenshin person; however, his was all red, and he wore no shoes or socks. He too had a katana at his side, though this one was amazingly rusty-looking, the sheath looked nice, though.

The pile began moving again, and yet another person made his way out of the pile, leaving two people left in the pile. "That hurt, ya know! You can't just go tossing me around! I AM NARUTO UZUMAKI!" the boisterous blond, Naruto, shouted as he crossed his arms.

Sora could already tell that this kid was younger than he was, mostly because he was short, shorter than he was. He had spiked blond hair, which was kept out of his face by a strange headband he was wearing, which had a strange symbol that looked almost like a leaf. Sora almost laughed as he took a look at the rest of his outfit, which was basically a bright orange and blue jumpsuit with a red spiral on the back of the jacket of the suit. He wore the most peculiar pair of blue sandals Sora had ever seen, ones that matched almost perfectly with his bright blue eyes. The only oddity on this kid, other than his manner of dress, was the whisker-like scars on his cheeks.

One of the two remaining lumps in the pile moved, who was cupping his family jewels. "You know, if I wasn't in so much pain right now, I'd kill you all," the young man said in a lighter than normal tone.

Despite practically being in a standing fetal position, the Keyblade Wielder could tell that this guy was still pretty tall, not as tall as the guy with the dog ears, and was even an inch or two shorter than Lloyd. He had black hair that, unlike all previous persons, actually looked like it was combed and taken care of. His eyes were brown, much like Sora's hair. He was currently wearing a plain white t-shirt underneath an un-zipped red jacket. He wore a pair of blue-jean pants and a pair of sneakers to finish off his look, something Sora was able to distinguish much more easily.

"Damn you, mutt! You didn't have to toss my ass!" he shouted as he slowly straightened up, the dog-eared persona scoffing as he shook his head.

"I knew I didn't have to. I wanted to. And my name isn't mutt, Yus-uke, it's Inuyasha," the half-dog demon stated as 'Yus-uke' began fuming.

"God damn it! It's not Yus-uke, its Yusuke!" he shouted as he prepared to knock the stuffing out of Inuyasha, but was quickly interrupted when his leg was suddenly grabbed by the hand of the last person in the pile, said person grinning evilly at him.

"Hey, remember me... the name's Edward Elric, and I'm going to beat both of your asses first," he said in an arrogant tone.

Edward, as Sora noted, was just as short as Naruto, yet the Keyblade Master didn't feel that they were the same age. Edward's eyes were a similar color to his hair, a somewhat blond color, though admittedly his hair was a much brighter shade. His hair was done in a braided pony-tail, one that reached down to his shoulders. His own clothing was different from his fellow 'pile-mates'. He wore a black long-sleeved shirt with a white collar, though his sleeves were hidden under his red, hooded jacket, with a strange symbol which looked like a cross object with wings and a crown on top, with a black snake wrapping around the cane. His pants were also black, but there was no white anywhere to be seen. His black shoes had somewhat large soles, which told Sora that the blond was shorter than he would've liked to admit.

The four hostile group members looked at each other with little good intent apparent, as Edward, Inuyasha, Naruto, and Yusuke were about to get back into a fight that had apparently happened before they arrived. Then they heard someone clearing their throat.

They all turned to see Donald, Goofy, and Sora, staring at them with a raised eyebrow. Even the Soldier Heartless that had been attacking them a second ago were staring at them with their heads tilted to the side with curiosity. The six travelers just stared right back at each of them, before Yusuke spoke everyone's thoughts. "Hey, who are you three?" he asked as Sora, Donald, and Goofy just stared.

"We were about to ask you the same question, except it would have been you six," Sora said as Goofy nodded and Donald just shook his head.

"Hey, wait a minute, you all aren't from Traverse Town! I CAN TELL!" Donald shouted as Inuyasha scoffed.

"Oh, brilliant deduction. But then again, that's all I could expect from a duck, thing, I suppose." Inuyasha said as Donald just started jumping up in the air and squawking.

"What that's supposed to mean you, you stupid dog eared jerk?!" Donald shouted as he was about to leap at Inuyasha before Goofy grabbed onto to him.

"No Donald, you can't hurt them! They're from another world! And that could be, uh, muddling, I think," Goofy said as Donald just started thrashing around more.

"THAT'S MEDDLING! And I don't think it would matter if I beat him to a pulp!" Donald shouted as he pulled out his wand, hit Goofy over the head, and got face to face with Inuyasha. Inuyasha scoffed as looked Donald in the eye.

"Please, you'd better listen to your dog friend unless you want to get hurt!" Inuyasha said as Yusuke got in between them.

"Hold it! If anyone's kicking this mutt's ass, it's me!" Yusuke shouted as Lloyd, Kenshin, Goofy, and Sora sweat dropped.

"Umm, guys." Sora said as he tried to gain their attention, but failed miserably, as Edward jumped under the three of them.

"Hold it! I'm kicking the black-haired dude's ass because he called me a midget, and I'm beating the dog down because he hit me!" Edward shouted as Naruto leapt onto Inuyasha's shoulders as he looked down at them. Meanwhile Kenshin and Lloyd were staring at the four.

"Umm, hello, are you guys even aware of what's going...?" Lloyd began as Naruto began shouting over him.

"Hey, I'm not about to be left out of this!" Naruto shouted as he leapt onto Inuyasha's shoulders and looked down at the group. Inuyasha was about to throw him off when suddenly Donald hit him in the gut with his wand."

"Hahaha," Donald laughed as Inuyasha was about to bash him over the head, then suddenly Kenshin, Goofy, Sora and Lloyd whistled loudly, trying to get their attention. Which this time, they finally had. Now that they had their attention, they sighed as they pointed at the growing group of Soldier Heartless that was forming right behind them. Donald, Inuyasha, Yusuke, Naruto, and Edward sweat dropped as they looked at each other and sighed.

"Truce?" they all said as they extended their hands to each other, though in the end they just put one hand in the center of them all. "Truce," they said as they all shook their hands in the center of the circle before jumping off of each other to face the Heartless with the other four.

"About time." Sora said as he made the Keyblade appear in his hand. Everyone nodded as they faced the Heartless, Inuyasha drawing out his katana which, as soon as it exited the sheath, transformed into a giant sword, almost as large as a Zanbato. Lloyd and Kenshin merely sweat dropped as they pulled out their less-than-impressive normal katanas. Yusuke cracked his knuckles, Naruto formed the cross seal to use his trademark technique, Edward clapped his hands together and used his alchemy to transmute his arm into a blade, Donald brought his staff up, and Goofy got his shield up and ready to bash more enemies.

The Soldier Heartless slowly surrounded the nine fighters, ready to strike out at them, when suddenly, just as soon as they appeared, they began to pull out and run away, climbing up the pillars which surrounded the area. The nine simply stared as the Heartless retreated. They all simply stared at the strange display until Inuyasha chuckled before slinging the Tetsusaiga over his shoulder. "Stupid things. Obviously they were too scared to fight us," he said as Yusuke smirked.

"Yeah," said Yusuke as he cracked his neck. "Guess they didn't have the guts to take us on." He then smirked and put his finger into the gun pose, aiming it at Inuyasha's head. "And unfortunately, you don't have the common sense to keep your guard up," he said, as suddenly a little blue, glowing orb appeared on the end of his fingertip. Suddenly the metal blade from Edward's arm was pointed at his throat.

"Looks like you're not that much better there, pal." Edward muttered. Suddenly he felt a pointy metal object slightly pricking the back of his neck. He took a quick glance to see Naruto standing behind him, kunai pointed straight at him.

"Hah! I win!" Naruto cheered. Suddenly the sharp edge of the Tetsusaiga was put against his throat. He looked at Inuyasha with a slightly worried look. "You wouldn't hurt a little kid, would you?" Naruto said as Inuyasha simply smirked.

"Oh, I've clobbered a runt a lot smaller than you a lot of times, kid." Inuyasha said as he looked around. "Well, by the looks of it, if one of us makes a funny move, we're all going to die," Inuyasha said. Suddenly a wand was pointed in their direction. They all looked at Donald, who had a fireball forming on the tip.

"Hehehehehe..." Donald cackled as they all stared at the fireball with widened eyes. Sora, Goofy, Lloyd, and Kenshin just sighed and shook their heads as they watched this scene. Goofy leaned in close to Kenshin and Lloyd while staring at the five of them.

"Are they always like this?" he asked. Kenshin and Lloyd looked at him with confused expressions.

"We don't even know these people!" Lloyd shouted in response, while Kenshin just nodded, as it was the truth, he and Lloyd had only met these people a few minutes ago.

"But, what about the duck, will he they be alright?" Kenshin asked Goofy, while the Captain tapped his chin before shrugging.

"Gawrsh, I suppose that all depends" are they fireproof?" Goofy said. Sora, Kenshin, and Lloyd sweat dropped as they watched the other five continue to keep each other at a stand still. Suddenly, there was a dark spot that began growing in size. They all looked up at it, which made Inuyasha, Naruto, Edward, Donald, and Yusuke drop their 'weapons' to look up at the ever growing mass seemingly made from darkness float in the sky above. "Hey, what do ya suppose that is?" Goofy asked as everyone slightly shrugged before the object stopped growing.

Then, as suddenly as it appeared, several giant pieces of armor, mostly a light purple, fell from the sky. There were two giant gauntlets with spiked fingers, two pairs of boots, a giant torso piece with a wide bottom and one of those strange symbols on the chest area, and a helmet with the face plate closed. They all stared at it, but Edward was slightly shaken because he was suddenly reminded of the armored freaks at the lab in Central.

Edward quickly tip-toed over to the pieces of armor and began poking them with his left foot. Everyone else just stared at him with raised eyebrows as he did it to each piece of armor. "What the hell are you doing?" Inuyasha finally asked.

"Yeah, you do look kind of ridiculous," Sora said as Edward kept on going. "Seriously, what are you doing!?" he shouted when Edward showed no indications of stopping any time soon. Said Alchemist just looked back a moment before he began tapping the helmet.

"I'm checking to see if it's alive," Edward simply said. Everyone just looked at him with confused expressions, before they burst out laughing. A throbbing vein appeared on Edward's head as he glared at the other eight guys. "Shut up!" Edward shouted as he stomped his left foot into the helmet, causing it to shake and rattle.

Before it lifted into the air!

Everyone gasped as they moved backwards, and Edward jumped back with them, except he had a cocky grin on his face.

"HA! I knew that was a good idea!" Edward shouted as he looked at all of them with a cocky grin. "And you all thought I was crazy!" They continued staring at the helmet as it kept floating higher into the air until it was several feet above their heads. Then, as it stopped levitating, darkness began pouring out of the bottom of the helmet. It began reaching down for the torso piece of the armor and entered it through the hole in the top of the armor. Slowly, that piece of the armor began lifting up into the air as well.

As it got close to the head, darkness began pouring out of the sides of the armor, reaching for the gauntlets on the ground. The gauntlets began lifting up as the other pieces, and as they did, darkness began pouring out of the bottom of the armor. That darkness began reaching for the boots of the armor as It had with the other segments, and the boots lifted themselves off the ground before touching back down in stomps. The symbol on the chest of the armor glowed for a split second before it stopped.

There, standing before the group of nine, stood a giant suit of armor, darkness pouring out of holes in it, connecting each separate piece to the torso. The head piece spun around, then the arms began spinning rapidly, followed by the torso, and finally the boots did quick 'back flips' before stomping the ground again. Each of the nine stared at the suit of armor before turning to each other. "Any of you ever see something like this?" they all asked each other at the same time. "Didn't think so," they said before looking back at the armor that floated in front of them.

Despite the lack of visible eyes thanks to the face plate, everyone had the feeling "it" was observing them. Then it began taking steps towards them. They all looked at each other, then the armor, then each other again, before leaping away from the armor, as well as each other. The armor slammed its fist into the ground where the travelers stood at first before they moved out of the way. It looked up as they began their counter-assault. Yusuke was the first one to act, grinding his shoes into the ground to stop himself before rushing towards the armor.

His fists began glowing as he charged Spirit Energy into them. He was about to strike, when... "Wind Scar!" he heard as he looked to his side to see the giant flare of yellow energy rushing towards him and the armor. Yusuke panicked as he leapt backwards and dodged. He looked up in time to see the Wind Scar hit the suit of armor, and looked at Inuyasha, whose Tetsusaiga was smoking slightly, with an indignant look.

"Hey! Watch where you're aiming that, you asshole!" Yusuke shouted at Inuyasha, who just scoffed at him.

"Whatever. I destroyed it, didn't I?" Inuyasha said as he pointed towards a plume of smoke where the armor was with his sword. The smoke cleared, and it revealed an amazingly damaged armor. It had several smoking grooves resembling huge slash marks from when the attack connected, but it wasn't destroyed. Yusuke looked at Inuyasha with a smug smirk on his face as Inuyasha sweat dropped. "Whatever! I mean, look at it! It's not going to last much longer!" Inuyasha shouted. Suddenly the armor began glowing with a dark aura around it.

Suddenly, the damage in the armor was slowly repaired like nothing had happened. It was as if they were never even there in the first place. Inuyasha, as well as the others, looked on in awe as they watched the damage from that overwhelming attack disappear. As soon as the armor was repaired, it looked straight at Inuyasha, who just glared at it. "Why you!" he shouted as he put his sword back in its sheath. "Whatever, I don't need the Tetsusaiga to kill you!" He then began running towards the giant armor.

The half-breed leapt up towards the giant armor, which tried to strike him down with one of its claws. Inuyasha, however, had other plans as his claws began to glow in a yellow-gold color. "Iron Reaver Soul Stealer!" He shouted the name of his attack as he sliced straight through the front of the arm, causing chunks of it to fall to the ground. Then, Inuyasha used that same arm to kick off a jump to put some distance between himself and the armor, slamming the dangerous limb into the torso.

Inuyasha then leapt forwards at the armor again. It tried to get him with its other arm. However, Inuyasha simply dug his claws into the arm and leapt over it, aiming for the armor's symbol on the torso. His claws glowed a yellow-gold color once again as he sliced through the armor's torso. He then dug his feet into the armor, and looked up to see that the armor was looking at him with its head tilted to the side. The half-demon was dismayed to find out the damage he had caused was getting reversed like before.

Inuyasha growled as he quickly dropped off from the armor, but he was far from done. He quickly leapt back up and aimed a strong round-house kick to the armor's torso, causing it to stumble towards his side. Not finished yet, he once again dug his feet into the side of the stumbling armor and leapt up towards its head. He then grabbed the head and pulled it down to the ground with him, slamming it into the ground.

Inuyasha looked down at his handiwork, only to see that his handiwork had no body. He looked up to see the rest of the armor standing right behind him. Inuyasha's eyes widened as the armor's foot pulled back and punted him across the area. He landed in a painful heap, struggling to get back up. He stared on as the head of the armor returned to its position. The armor quickly closed the distance to the downed warrior, intend on squashing it under its metal boots, when several small, blue energy shots launched at it seconds later.

"Shot Gun!" Yusuke shouted as he launched several volleys of tiny energy bullets at the huge armor with one attack. The armor covered itself to defend against the attack, causing them to simply bounce off the armor. Inuyasha simply stared at the attack as it ricocheted off uselessly. away from the armor and towards the rest of the people in the area! The group panicked. The half-demon began using his huge blade to deflect the bullets away from himself.

Edward clapped his hands together and slammed them into the ground, transmuting a very thick wall from the stones. He pressed himself against the wall and began praying that he would be alright. Naruto just kept ducking and dodging the rebounded attack, barely evading the shots as they flew by. Lloyd just crossed his swords as a green barrier of energy surrounded him. "Guardian!" The bullets simply bounced right off the barrier.

Kenshin just ran around the entire place, moving out of the way of the tiny bullets. Finally Inuyasha snapped and glared at Yusuke, who was staring at the armor in shock. "It's not working, you jackass! Try something else!" he shouted at Yusuke. Said teen just glanced at the half demon, stopped firing off the bullets, and charged energy into his fists.

"Fine then!" Yusuke shouted as he ran for the armor. He jumped forward, and began beating the armor with his fists. However, with each punch that hit the armor, a fact became increasingly obvious. It wasn't working either. The young Spirit Detective pressed his feet against the armor and leapt backwards off of it. He then brought his hand down, put it in the gun pose, and began charging a LARGE bullet onto it.

"YOU WANT SOMETHING?! I'LL GIVE YOU SOMETHING!" Yusuke shouted as he ran for the armor. The armor was about to slam its fist into the ground, but Yusuke quickly leapt up into the air over it. He then pointed the bullet towards the armor and it began shining even brighter. "Spirit Gun!!" Yusuke's trademark attack launched at the Heartless fiend. The armor looked up, and quickly twisted its head.

Then, with the same speed the torso used to deflect the Wind Scar, the armor's head began spinning violently. The spirit bullet hit the spinning head, and they were at a stalemate for several seconds. But then, eight tiny beams reflected off the spinning head. One beam headed straight for Edward's giant wall. In the next instant, the wall was blown to bits. As the smoke cleared, Edward was still standing, the beam apparently having only grazed the top of his hair.

"Wow," Edward said as he shook a bit. "If I were a few inches taller that might have actually gotten me." Edward said chuckling at his seeming good fortune, before breaking down for implying that it good he was so short. Meanwhile, Naruto just stared at the giant beam heading straight for him. He jumped at he last second, but the minor explosion caused him to be blown away several feet. Lloyd tried using his 'Guardian' ability again, but it failed on him, dissipating only part of the beam before the shield broke and the rest struck him head on.

Kenshin once again just used his amazing speed to avoid the attack. Inuyasha, meanwhile, decided to use his Tetsusaiga once again to deflect the attack. However, he was under much more strain, thanks to the concentration of the beam. However, he did end up deflecting the beam away from him, and right towards Yusuke. "Oh, this can't be good," Yusuke said as the beam hit him, blowing him towards one of the white pillars. As he slid down the pillar, he only muttered one thing. "Ow," he groaned as he hit the bottom and tried to force himself up.

Edward looked at both Inuyasha and Yusuke and shook his head. "You both are idiots!!" he muttered as he clapped his hands together and slammed them into the ground. In an instant, large pillars of stone flew from the concrete ground towards the Armor, slamming into its metal exterior. The Guard Armor, however, merely grabbed onto these pillars and broke them away from their base, throwing them at the tiny Alchemist.

Ed quickly clapped his hands together again and slammed them into the ground, bringing up a large wall of concrete in front of him. The two concrete pillars tore through the wall, which did not shock the Full Metal Alchemist. After all, a wall that flimsy wouldn't be able to withstand such a strong force. He just needed it to be strong enough to get the pillars jammed into it. He quickly clapped his hands together again and slammed them into the wall, taking all the concrete from the wall and projectiles and forming it into the shape of a small dome around himself.

The metal goliath, having recovered from Edward's initial strike, ran over to the dome, looking somewhat curiously at the stone structure before slamming its fists down on it. The monster slammed its clawed arms upon the concrete shield again and again and again, hoping to break through and then destroy the tiny alchemist hiding inside. Meanwhile, Edward braced against the far side of the dome, staying as far away from the section the Guard Armor was beating down on as possible. He ground his teeth together; he was honestly hoping the Armor would waste its energy in trying to break through. If it did happen to break through, then he would have a small trick up his sleeve. He smirked before clapping his hands together, a few sparks flying from his palms.

The Guard Armor pulled back its fist, the arm spinning around like a drill before slamming it into the surface of Edward's defense, breaking through it rather easily. It pulled back its fist and looked into the large hole it created, affording Edward the opportunity to pull off his trick. "Got ya!" he shouted as he slammed his palms into the ground, a large pillar shooting up and out of the hole in the dome, striking the Armor's helmet and sending it flying away. The main body of the Heartless stumbled backwards as the Alchemist jumped out from his dome. He looked up and clapped his hands together again, pressing them onto the concrete floor yet again, and once more sent another pillar into the creature's torso. The force of the attack was amazing, launching the body of the Guard Armor against the wall of the makeshift arena.

Edward then ran up right in front of the armor again, pressing his hands together again before slapping them onto the Guard Armor itself. Sparks flew and shot all over the armor, causing it to screech as it was shattered in multiple places. The blond Alchemist then jumped back several feet, and once more activated his Alchemy, using the ground as his weapon once again. This time, however, instead of just one section of concrete flying towards the monster, several pillars jutted out of the ground, slamming the vulnerable Armor in various places, pinning it further again the wall, and crushing, if not outright breaking, several pieces of its body.

Edward looked up at the still piece of armor, smirking as he crossed his arms. "You see, brute strength alone can't defeat such a complex enemy," he said in a boastful tone, annoying many of the other persons there. "Yep, just goes to show just how much better brain is than brawn," he said as he scratched the tip of his nose. He was about to continue, but was almost instantly interrupted by a loud, screeching sound. Edward immediately turned his head, only to be confronted with a somewhat disturbing sight. The Armor's left arm was pulling against the pillars that had pinned it up against the wall.

With one forceful pull, the Guard Armor pulled its arm from the pillars, tearing its own arm apart. However, instantaneously, the darkness poured out from the arm, pulling the individual pieces back to the arm. The crushed parts of the arm also began expanding again, until the arm was completely back to normal. That one arm began destroying all of the pillars Edward had created, freeing the rest of its body, and allowing the darkness inside to heal the beast.

Edward sweat dropped as he clapped his hands. "Alright, that didn't work..." he muttered in a weak tone as he hit his arm blade with his left hand, while keeping his right hand in contact with the concrete. The sparks flew as large piles of stone rode up onto Edward's metal arm, slowly moving and twisting into the shape of a hammer, while metal plate from his arms were moved to surround most of the stone hammer. "Alright, time for Plan C!" Edward shouted as he leapt towards the armor for his own attack. The armor looked over to see the tiny Alchemist running at him. It almost crushed him under his boot, but Edward quickly leapt up onto the hem of the torso armor.

He quickly clapped his hands together and slammed them onto the side of the armor's torso, before leaping up onto the armor's arm. As he jumped, the part of the armor he touched was quickly demolished. After landing on the arm, he leapt up towards the head of the armor, and hit it with the hammer. The head flew ten feet away from the armor, and Ed smiled at his accomplishment. He quickly looked down and saw the most terrible thing he had seen all day.

Inside the torso of the armor was a large amount of dark material, with two beady yellow eyes staring back at him. Edward froze right then and there, as fear quickly overtook his body. He felt like he was standing in front of them again. Those strange black creatures, just looking at him, staring at him, watching him carefully, only to come out and try to take him apart limb by limb.

Those eyes stared at the young man quite intently and then the living darkness began rising out of the armor and wrapped around Edward. Edward was quickly snapped out of his panic by the attack, and he quickly clapped his hands together and slammed his left hand onto his hammer just before the black material enveloped him. In the next instant, a blade sliced through the shadowy mess, revealing the Full Metal Alchemist.

However, he was quickly getting drawn towards that...that hole inside the armor, and he had no way of getting out of the darkness this time. Then, suddenly, Kenshin leapt up and dragged the Elric boy away from the vortex, just as a mess of dark tendrils was about to swallow them up. The former manslayer landed with Edward's arm firmly in his grasp. The boy stared at Kenshin for a moment before scratching the back of his head. "Thanks. What's your name?" Edward asked as Kenshin looked at him with narrowed eyes.

Edward raised an eyebrow and looked at Kenshin. The guy had these big innocent eyes moments ago, but now had a look of utmost seriousness in his violet orbs. "Kenshin. My name is Kenshin Himura, and I'd suggest that you get out of the way, quick!" Kenshin shouted as he jumped out of the way from an incoming attack, and Edward looked back to see one of the armor's hands rising into the air. He also jumped out of the way as the hand slammed onto the ground.

Everyone looked at the armor to see that it was putting itself back together. Large clumps of darkness poured out of the hole in the torso and grabbed onto the broken pieces that littered the ground. It slowly started pulling them back to their proper places and then fused them back together. Then, a huge blob of darkness quickly shot out of the top of the torso, and went inside the head, quickly pulling it back into position. The head glowed as it began spinning wildly again.

The entire group just stared at the armor with widened eyes, but Naruto ran in front. "Ha! Alch... whatever may not have been able to destroy this thing, but a ninja will definitely do the job!" He shouted as he made the cross hand sign for his trademark technique. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Thirteen clones of Naruto suddenly appeared beside him. Four of the clones surrounded the giant armor, while five groups of two clones also positioned themselves around it.

Then, in the five groups of two clones, one of the clones held out his right hand, while another one struck at specific points around the other's palm. Suddenly, tendrils of blue energy began spinning around in their hands, while the other four began charging the suit of armor. "U!" One clone shouted as he jumped forward, head-butting one of the arms out of the way. "Zu!" Another shoulder as he kicked the other arm away. "Ma!" He shouted as he round-house kicked a foot away. "Ki!" The last shouted as he punched the last foot away.

Then, suddenly, spinning blue energy spheres formed in five of the clones' hands as the others simply disappeared. "Naruto Rasengan Combo!" The five remaining Naruto clones shouted as they ran for the armor. Four of the Narutos leapt for the torso, while the last one leapt for the head. The group of four clones rammed the 'Rasengans' into the chest area, immediately causing cracks, while the last clone struck the head, shattering the face plate, and causing the Rasengan to plow into the back of the helmet.

The others stared in amazement at the attack Naruto just unleashed. Edward even whistled in appreciation. As the seconds passed, the four other Rasengans broke through the front of the armor, and rammed into the back before dissipating, while the final one broke through the back of the helmet before dissipating. The Naruto clones smirked, at least, until the two gauntlets suddenly clapped together, crushing four of the clones in the process. Meanwhile, the feet began crushing the other four clones underneath them.

The number one hyperactive ninja didn't have much time to be shocked, for the helmet struck him hard, sending him flying away. Once he fell on the ground, darkness began pouring out of the flying body parts, positioning themselves back in their proper places. As the torso refilled with darkness, the armor slowly began the process of putting itself back together again. The guys were starting to feel very threatened by the armor; so much so that they really didn't want to get near it yet.

As the armor finally rebuilt itself, Sora, Donald, and Goofy stepped forward to fight the monster. The armor 'looked' intently at them as Sora charged at it, while Donald and Goofy stayed behind, Goofy beginning to spin in a circle. Sora leapt up towards the armor, striking it with his Keyblade, which, to everyone's surprise, caused massive cracks and dents in the armor, and even caused the armor to 'cry' in pain. The armor then rammed Sora into its torso with its hand and threw him across the area.

Sora landed on his feet and began spinning his Keyblade around, running for the armor to land another hit. Goofy suddenly threw his shield towards the armor. However, the armor effortlessly picked the shield out of mid-air with its claws. Sora, after getting some momentum, threw himself up towards the armor, preparing to strike it once again. The armor tried to block the attack with his arm, but Sora's Legendary Weapon once again inflicted amazing damage, causing the creature to howl again.

Sora took the hint and began trying to break the Heartless' arm to pieces. However, the armor used Goofy's shield to its advantage, using it to deflect each of the attacks made by Sora. Eventually, Sora tried to bring his sword back and stab through the armor's gauntlet; however, he didn't realize that in doing so, he gave the monster just the opportunity it needed. The armor backhanded him with the shield, striking him in the head and sending him flying.

Goofy jumped up and caught the young Keyblade master in his arms. He looked up, however, to see the armor spinning around with the shield in its hand. As it launched the shield, Goofy quickly covered Sora up to keep the young boy safe. "Aero!" Donald shouted the name of the wind spell, using it to form a shield to surround the Captain of the royal guard just as the shield was about to hit him. The wind shield bounced the metal shield away. Goofy slowly opened his eyes to see the shield, and sent a grateful smile towards Donald.

"Thanks, Donald!" Goofy shouted towards his friend, followed by his trademark light-hearted laugh. Donald just shook his head.

"Just wake him up and quick! I'll hold this thing off while the other weirdoes recover!" Donald replied in a brusque manner. Goofy nodded and the Court Magician charged. Donald began firing off a group of five fireballs towards the armor, and the armor simply clenched its gauntlet around the fireballs. Donald's beak opened wide as the armor began spinning around, then flung the fireballs right back at him. Donald simply stood his ground, creating a wind shield around himself.

The fireballs were easily deflected off the surface of the shield. Donald chuckled in confidence, and began moving around the armor. Then he launched a fireball at the armor's left gauntlet, which it did not block. Donald's staff then began to glow a white-blue. "Now, you want to see a good trick?" Donald said as he launched a giant bit of frost at the same spot. "Blizzard!" Donald shouted as the frost hit the armor's gauntlet, cooling it off.

Donald kept this same strategy up, continuously shifting between a Fire and a Blizzard attack on the armor's gauntlet, until eventually huge cracks began forming on the metal. Donald then launched one last Blizzard, before charging up another, much more powerful, fireball on his staff. "Take this! Fira!" Donald then launched the fireball at the armor's gauntlet, causing it to shatter.

Donald laughed victoriously, before the armor once again began picking itself back up. Donald stopped to stare for a moment, before he glared at the armor. "That's it! You want power?!" he shouted, as brilliant purple sparks began forming on his rod. "I'll give you power!" He shot the rod into the air. "Thundara!" A huge bolt of lightning headed towards the armor. However, the armor merely blocked it with its gauntlet.

As the gauntlet began sparking with electricity, the metal having captured the energy of the bolt, before the Heartless beast looked at Donald before pointing one of its fingers at Donald. A second later, the huge bolt of lightning that hit the armor was fired at Donald. Donald ducked, knowing that the wind shield wouldn't hold against such a strong attack. The lightning bolt passed over him, and when he looked up to see it missed, he began laughing at the armor, until Goofy, who was still trying to wake Sora up, noticed something odd.

"Hey Donald, your tail's on fire," he said. Donald just looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"My tail's what?" he asked as he looked at it, and saw that it was indeed on fire. "AAAHHHH!" Donald screamed as he ran around, trying everything to stop his tail from burning. Everyone watched until finally Donald put out his tail. He let out an immense sigh of relief. Yusuke would've been rolling on the ground laughing aloud had the situation not been so dire. Goofy then stood and looked down at the unconscious Sora.

"You just stay here. I'll take care of this thing," he said to the unconscious Keyblade master. Goofy looked up at the armor, before charging at it, his shield right in front of him. He began spinning around, and while the armor was ready to intercept another thrown shield, he then actually began to lift into the air. Goofy spun around the armor, striking it in random places around it.

Finally, the armor found Goofy and struck him while he was spinning in mid-air, causing him to fly through the air while spinning like a tornado. Sora slowly woke up, only to see Goofy ready to land on him. He quickly moved out of the way before the spinning Goof projectile could harm him. Said Goof landed on his head, spinning on it like a top. "Ouch," was all Goofy could say when he finally stopped spinning.

Lloyd and Kenshin stepped forward together and stared down the immense armor. It was then that Lloyd began speaking. "Hey, Kenshin," Lloyd said, prompting Kenshin to glance at him.

"Yes, Lloyd?" Kenshin asked as Lloyd brought his swords out in front of him.

"By the looks of things, going at this thing by ourselves isn't going to work out so well, is it?" he asked Kenshin with a hint of satire in his voice as Kenshin nodded.

"Indeed. So you propose we work together, then?" Kenshin asked as Lloyd nodded.

"You read my mind." Lloyd replied. He and Kenshin nodded before charging for the armor. They both brought their swords out in front of them as Kenshin went to the right and Lloyd went to the left. The armor couldn't quite follow them, since they were moving so fast, even by sound. "Demon Fang!" Lloyd shouted as a blue wave of energy struck it in the side of the head.

It turned to face Lloyd, but then it heard the sound of ground crumbling. "Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu: Earth Dragon Flash!" Kenshin shouted the name of his attack, which caused piles of stones from the ground to strike the monster in the back of its armored head. It looked in the direction that the stones came from, and then Lloyd made himself heard again.

"Demon Fang!" Said attack sent a blue wave of energy that hit the back of the head just like the previous one. It turned around again, only to have more stones hit their mark again. It turned to look at where Kenshin should have been, and found him not there, and another blue wave of energy hit it in the back of the head. This time it managed to counter attack. It quickly turned to where it guessed Kenshin would be and brought its gauntlets up to block its head.

When no stones came, it looked over its arm, only to see Kenshin leaping towards it. The armor panicked and swung its arm towards the current attacker. The swordsman, however, just swung his reverse edge katana, and passed right by the arm. A few seconds went by, and in an instant, the arm was sliced in two. The armor watched as both pieces of its limb fell. The darkness began pouring out of the hole in its torso, and it began snaking its way to the arm pieces.

Until Lloyd leapt in front of the pieces as blue energy enveloped his blades.

"Fierce Demon Fang!" Unlike the prior Demon Fang attacks, a HUGE blast of dull orange energy completely destroyed the darkness and the hole it came from. The armor screamed out as the darkness literally disappeared. It looked at the hole in its torso and tried to force darkness out of it, but all that came out were little tendrils, not even reaching an inch.

The others saw this and quickly began plotting, almost in unison. "So it's not the armor we should be focusing on." Inuyasha said as he smirked and lifted the Tetsusaiga over his shoulder.

"We've just got to destroy the darkness underneath it." Yusuke said. The others nodded in agreement. Lloyd and Kenshin heard them, and Lloyd smirked. Kenshin merely nodded before turning back to the creature, glad they finally noticed what he had several minutes ago. The guard Armor tried to attack again before they leapt out of the way, and Inuyasha and Yusuke began running forward. Inuyasha quickly leapt up towards the other arm, and as the armor tried to swat Inuyasha away, Inuyasha crashed the Tetsusaiga into it, causing it to bounce back. The human-demon mix touched down and leapt back up, sending more strikes into the arm and causing it to crack significantly.

Inuyasha then dug one of his feet into the arm and leapt up into the air. The armor brought its cracked arm up, getting ready to block a Wind Scar. However, Inuyasha didn't do anything, Yusuke did. Yusuke fired a spirit bullet that destroyed the weakened arm without being deflected back, revealing the darkness. That's when Inuyasha attacked.

The half-breed brought his blade back and swung forward, causing the waves of yellow energy to launch themselves at the armor. The vulnerable darkness was quickly destroyed by the Wind Scar, causing another scream to escape the armor. Then Yusuke leapt up and pulled Inuyasha away from the armor in mid-air as Edward and Naruto ran forward to attack. The armor lifted up its left boot preparing to squash the small blonds.

Edward quickly clapped his hands together and slammed them into the ground. A portion of the ground shot up, blocking the boot. Edward clapped his hands together again and slammed them into the boot, causing it to burst into pieces.

Meanwhile Naruto made four clones of himself, two of which stayed behind, making another Rasengan, while the other three Narutos threw shuriken and kunai at the blobs of vulnerable darkness.

The kunai and shuriken made the darkness pause for several seconds, more than enough time for the Rasengan to be completed, and the real Naruto rammed it into the globs of darkness, causing it to almost instantly disappear. Edward then clapped his hands together and slammed them into the ground, causing it to move under Edward and Naruto, moving them away from the Heartless monster as Lloyd and Kenshin got back into the fray.

Lloyd was the first to run forward. He ran for the last boot and brought his sword back. "Sonic Thrust!" he rammed his sword into the boot with the piercing technique, causing it to severely crack. He then quickly moved away he was stomped. Kenshin then began running at high speed towards the boot.

"Hiten Mitsurugi Ryu: Dragon Nest Flash!" With this attack, Kenshin cut through the cracked boot several times. As soon as he passed by, the boot suddenly fell to pieces, with the darkness that was shredded by the attack dissipating as well. Donald and Goofy then stepped up and joined the fight. Goofy began spinning his shield around, launching it at high speed towards the head. Without any arms to block it, the shield rammed into the head, which caused it to fly off the torso.

When the hole in the bottom was revealed, Donald quickly launched a group of fireballs into the helmet. It burst into flames as the darkness inside the helmet was destroyed by the magical flames. The helmet fell to the ground lifelessly, shattering into pieces. Then, as Donald and Goofy separated, Sora ran forward. The torso, somehow, saw him coming and began spinning around wildly. Sora leapt forward and struck the spinning armor with his Keyblade.

Thanks to the force of the spinning, the damage to the armor was multiplied, and almost an entire third of the armor was covered in cracks. The Heartless 'screamed' out as Sora kept on striking with the Keyblade, causing the cracks to spread and deepen. Finally, Sora began spinning the Keyblade behind him and stabbed it into the armor. The armor shattered, and the darkness inside it felt the full wrath of Sora's weapon.

The darkness melted out of the armor before disappearing. Sora pushed off the torso armor before it fell to the ground, shattering on impact. The pieces of armor that were all over the ground disappeared as a heart-like shape flew up into the sky. Everyone looked up as they sighed, groaned, and gasped for breath. Sora looked around and smiled as he looked at all of them. "I guess... we did it..." He said as he fell over onto his back before passing out.

And in a matter of moments afterwards, the remaining eight fighters fell over, passing out from the strain of the day.

_Next Time: Explanations and the Gummi Barge!!_

_The travelers have fought off their first horde of Heartless; however they are far from done. They now must learn of the situation they are inÉ and gain a gummi barge from a man named Cid._

_R&R!!_


	2. Chapter 2

Kingdom Hearts: Different Hearts

Written By: Arganaut and Zoneshifter D

Hey there folks, here's Arganaut and Zoneshifter D with the latest installment of Kingdom Hearts: Different Hearts. That last chapter was quite the success according to you all. For those of you who don't remember, Sora and the gang (including the six additional travelers) had beaten the horror that was the Guard Armor.

Well with the reviews out of the way, Arganaut and Zoneshifter D proudly present the next chapter of Kingdom Hearts: Different Hearts!!!

Chapter 2: Explanations and the Gummi Barge

_Previously on KH: DH;_

"_I guess… we did it…" Sora said as he fell over onto his back before passing out. And in a matter of moments afterwards, thanks to the stress of the day that they had, the remaining eight fighters fell over, passing out from the strain of the day._

_And Now Onto Our Featured Presentation!_

A Hotel Room - A Few Hours Later

In one of the rooms in the hotel in the Second District of the battle-worn Traverse Town, a trio of battle weary travelers, one from the destroyed Destiny Islands and two from the world where Disney castle was respectively, were currently resting. Sora's prone form was laid out on the bed, stretching so that it was entirely taken up. Donald was on the floor next to the bed, apparently having fallen off of it... and surprisingly hadn't noticed it yet. Goofy was sitting in a corner, sleeping quietly... well, quietly, except for the occasional snore.

In the same room was a woman with long, braided brown hair, with a pink ribbon fastening it to the back of her head. The sleeveless dress she was wearing was also pink. She was currently fast asleep in a chair, snoring lightly along with some of the other occupants of the room. While the trinity and this woman were important people in this story... they were not the immediate focus of attention. No, the immediate focus was on the six travelers in the next room over.

Currently standing against the wall of that room was a man with long, slightly spiked brown hair. He was wearing a white t-shirt under a black short-sleeved jacket with a normal collar, and a matching pair of black slacks along with the jacket. Though what stood out about the man were two things. Not only the strange blade with a revolver type barrel and trigger built into the hilt... but the strange necklace he wore, with a lion-like creature on it.

The man called himself Leon, and his mind was currently boggled with the sight in front of him. There was a part man-part dog thing that he had laid in a chair...that looked as comfortable as one could be. Then there was a teen with straight black hair who he laid in a chair... upside-down. Then he had put this kid with blond, braided hair into the closet (after all, he was small enough to fit, and there had been nowhere else).

Then there was another blond, except this one had spiked hair, with whisker marks on his face. He had put that kid on the floor... hey, he couldn't fit in the closet with the other one. Then there was a man with spiked red hair with a cross-shaped scar on his cheek. He had seen the fight, and had seen how this guy had helped drive these guys to teamwork... so he got the bed. Then there was this teen with spiked brown hair, whom Leon had laid down over in a corner.

He could do nothing but sigh and rub the bridge of his nose when he thought about the current situation. Ever since the Heartless had taken over his home and forced him and some others to run... things had just been getting stranger. First off, he ended up here in Traverse Town, where, even if he wanted to do something, the resources needed to get the job done were long out of his reach. What he pledged to only be a couple of weeks turned into a year... then two... then more. Every time he wanted to leave and travel, he'd be convinced by one person or another to wait for the great Keyblade wielder. Now that he had found the Keyblade Master... he was very disappointed to find that it was only a kid...

A young, teenaged boy, who received a beat-down from Leon himself... That was not something to be too proud of. Anyway, after the kid finally woke up, Leon had to go through the process of explaining about the many different worlds, and the Heartless... something that, by the looks of it, he would have to repeat with all six of these guys (and he had the strangest feeling that it was going to be a huge pain in the ass to do so).

Then the Heartless invaded, which really wasn't too much of a problem, seeing as how he and Yuffie could kill them with ease. Anyway, they lost the Keybearer, and also Donald and Goofy, both of whom Aerith was supposed to look after, so they had to go searching for them. Imagine their surprise when they saw this huge battle between these nine guys and a huge Heartless. And imagine their surprise when they saw them tear it to pieces.

At any rate, all of them were out cold from the battle, so they had to carry all nine of these guys to the hotel. Even if they had gotten help from Cid, it still would have taken several trips to accomplish, and the residents of Traverse Town were still 'indisposed' at the moment. Currently, Aerith was watching over Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Yuffie was currently going around the town to check out the damage caused by the Heartless... she also mentioned something about 'finding a son of a bitch named Naruto Uzumaki', who apparently used her name to try to get stuff from the Moogles. Leon felt sorry for whoever did it... they were about to be attacked by 106 pounds of crazy.

In the meantime, here was Leon, watching over these six weirdoes until they woke up. It wasn't that Leon didn't like watching over six complete strangers as if he knew them his entire life... it was just... the circumstances of their arrival were very strange. To Leon's knowledge, only one star blinked out of existence that night.... and here were six (seven, if he counted Sora) guys who were definitely not from this world (and definitely not from Sora's)... so what happened to their worlds?

There were too many questions that needed answering in the young Gunblade Wielder's mind... questions that would hopefully be answered soon. Leon then heard several yawns as he looked around. The six travelers were finally starting to wake up... thank God. Leon was really tired of waiting around.

---------- The Other Room ------------

Meanwhile, in the other room, Aerith's eyes slowly fluttered open as she started waking up, giving a light yawn and doing some minor stretching. As soon as she completely caught her bearings, she looked at the three that were still asleep in front of her. Aerith had to say, when Leon, Yuffie, and herself reached the fight, they thought they were going to have to help. Boy, were they wrong! It simply amazed her that six kids, two members of Disney Castle's court, and one other warrior could manage to defeat such an immense Heartless.

It filled Aerith's heart with hope... though, when her friends (or, more or less, Leon), mentioned that when the six who helped the Keyblade master defeat the Heartless would want to go home, well, she couldn't say she wasn't disappointed. If they wanted to go back home as much as she and her friends did... well, how could she blame them? She could only hope that Leon would be able to somehow persuade them to help.

However, the chance of that happening was very poor. That meant that the young man and the two court members in front of her would have to face this perilous journey on their own. The young woman felt sorry for them... but it would have to be done. In the next moment, Sora began stirring suddenly. Aerith looked up to see him getting up off the bed, and Goofy and Donald also woke up. She smiled sweetly at them all as they turned to face her.

"Hello there. Are you all feeling better now?" Aerith asked as Goofy and Donald merely nodded as they yawned, and Sora looked at her with a look of mild confusion.

"Who are you?" Sora asked. Aerith laughed lightly.

"That's right; we haven't introduced ourselves quite yet, have we?" Aerith asked as she smiled at the young Legendary Warrior. "My name is Aerith." Sora smiled lightly as he yawned.

"Nice to meet ya," Sora said as he yawned again. "My name's Sora." He then began looking around. "Say, where are those other guys?" Sora asked, looking around along with Donald and Goofy.

"Yeah, where are those creeps?" Donald asked as he glared around, hoping to find a trace of the ones who had nearly landed on them before the fight with the Heartless armor thing, so he could blast them with his magic.

"Gawrsh, are they okay?" Goofy asked, strangely sincere in his worry over the condition of the six. Aerith merely smiled as she pointed to the door.

"Yes. Don't worry, Goofy, all of them are fine. Leon is keeping an eye on them. He'll inform us when they wake up," the brown-haired woman said softly as she looked at those three. "It looks like you've successfully found the Keyblade Master, Goofy, Donald," she said with a smile as both dog and duck nodded.

"Yep, we found him alright," Donald said, puffing his chest out as Sora merely raised his eyebrow at the white duck.

"Found me? You all fell out of the sky and landed on me!" he said as Donald made a slightly irritated sound from his gullet.

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?!" the magician quickly snapped back at Sora, getting a chuckle out of Goofy. Aerith, also finding the moment somewhat entertaining, laughed into her hand.

"Well, all small details aside, it's great you two have finally found him," she said, removing her hand from the front of her face. "But now it is time for the more serious part of the job." All three looked at her, Goofy nodding.

"Yup, now we got to go find King Mickey," the dog knight said in a dutiful tone, Donald nodding in agreement. The Keyblade Wielder looked back at the two with a curious look.

"Who's King Mickey?" Sora asked, making Donald and Goofy stared blankly at the young boy, while Aerith acknowledged his curiosity and decided to answer the boy's question.

"That is a reasonable question, seeing as how your world is even farther out of the loop than others. You see Sora, Donald and Goofy come from a world, in which the most prominent structure is one called 'Disney Castle'." She began as Donald and Goofy, understanding the reason for Sora's ignorance, decided to pick up on it.

"Ya see, from Disney Castle, our king, King Mickey, keeps an eye out over most of the affairs going on in all of the worlds, but without interfering in the actual affairs. You see, that's muddling, and it's a rule of the worlds that muddling isn't allowed," Goofy said, Donald's immediate reaction being elbowing him on the arm.

"That's meddling!" he said, before shaking his head and muttering 'Why do I bother' under his breath. "Anyway, one day the worlds themselves began disappearing altogether and, despite the rule against meddling, King Mickey went out to figure out why... we're not sure where he is, or what he's doing. All we know is that he told us to go out and find the Keyblade Wielder... you," Donald explained, said Keyblade Master nodding his head in understanding.

"And now, you want to find your King?" Sora asked, Donald and Goofy nodding in unison.

"That's right. So, will ya help us Sora?" Goofy asked. Sora faked a thoughtful look for a moment, before nodding. "Sure, as long as you two help me find my friends along the way," he replied in a serious tone, Donald huffing a bit.

"Alright, fine, we'll help you find your friends," he started off, before Goofy nodded and stuck his hand out to shake Sora's, forcing Donald to do the same.

"Promise!" Goofy said with a small amount of force. Sora smiled as well, shaking both the black dog's and the white duck's hands.

"Alright then, Goofy, Donald!" Sora said with a smile. "But... what are we going to do with those other guys?" he asked, making all of the room's occupants focus their attention to the next room. Each of them looked at the door as if it would burst on them at any moment. A fear that, although it might have seemed insane at first glance, it was not out of the realm of possibility for the occupants of the other room.

---------- Leon's Room ---------

Leon watched with minor interest as the strangers began waking up, the six of them rubbing the sleep out of their eyes... and the blond with the braid falling out of the closet. "Ooow..." he muttered as he stood up from the floor and stretched.

"Hey Al... what time is it?" The braided blond (Edward) said with a yawn... before quickly remembering where he was... and it would seem that the other five (Naruto, Inuyasha, Lloyd, Kenshin, and Yusuke) made the same realization. Before most of them were about to kill one another, Leon cleared his throat, bringing their attention to him. They all stared at him before Edward, being the closest to him, felt the need to speak. "Who are you?" he asked as Leon sighed.

"About time someone asked," Leon said as he got off the wall he was leaning on and faced the six travelers. "My name is Leon," he stated as everyone looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"... Well, that name's kind of boring..." Naruto said flatly as Leon looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh yeah? What's your name, then?" Leon asked as Naruto smirked.

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki. Remember it!" Naruto declared. The room fell deathly silent for a moment, before Yusuke and Inuyasha broke into fits of laughter while Kenshin merely chuckled. "What?!" he asked irritably as Yusuke pointed at him.

"YOUR PARENTS NAMED YOU AFTER A RAMEN TOPPING!" Yusuke shouted out through his laughter. Everyone just sweat dropped as the laughter continued. A throbbing vein appeared on Naruto's head as he pouted. Despite the childish action, a small flash of an underlying grief quickly flashed through the boy's eyes. However, only Kenshin's piercing gaze managed to catch it.

Leon sweatdropped at the kid's name... so he was the one that Yuffie was looking for. Leon almost considered telling him not to say his name out loud when she was around... however, given the comment he made on his name... let him be attacked by 106 pounds of crazy.

As the laughter subsided, Leon sighed and cleared his throat. Once again, the attention was on him. He sighed. "With that little… episode out of the way, I think it's about time that a few things were explained to you all," Leon said as he walked to the other side of the room, six sets of eyes watching him intently as he did. "Let's get the most obvious facts out of the way first. I think it has become apparent to you all that you are no longer in your own worlds," he said as there were nods, and 'duh's fired by most of them... well... most of them.

"WHAT!?" exclaimed Naruto. "What do you mean I'm not in my own world! I mean, sure, the buildings look different, and so do the people, and the food, and the clothes, but that... doesn't make it... ah...." His face suddenly went red as he realized how truly obvious his situation was. By that time, however, all of the inhabitants of the room, except for Kenshin, had just crowned Naruto 'King-Idiot'.

"... Okay... now then... for the rest of it..." The young man rubbed his temples and began explaining to the six travelers the concepts of the Heartless, the several worlds, the Keyblade, the Keybearer, and several other facts that he believed they should know. As he finished, Yusuke raised his hand, his face twisted with slight annoyance. "Yes?" Leon said, surprised this guy actually raised his hand instead of just blurting out his question.

"You say that stars are different worlds? Bullshit," Yusuke said bluntly. "In my world..." He was then interrupted by Leon.

"The stars that I talk about... represent the links to other worlds across infinity," Leon began, before driving through any questions they'd ask with a preemptive answer. "None of the worlds are directly connected to each other; most of them have paths that run through and connect with one world, which we call a junction world. This world, Traverse Town, is one such world; it leads to several, though we're only sure of two," Leon stated. Everyone nodded in understanding as the question they we about to ask was promptly answered.

Edward, though, quickly made his voice heard, for he had his own question. "Hey... if they're that far away how the hell are we going to get back to our own worlds?" Edward asked as everyone else nodded and Leon looked at him.

"A Gummi ship," Leon said, as the guys simply tilted their heads to the side in confusion. "It's a craft that has the ability to take you to the different worlds in a matter of days, using a form of inter-dimensional travel that pierces through the fabric of what we've come to call Gummi Space," Leon said. This time, Naruto spoke up.

"What's Gummi Space?" the orange clad ninja asked, causing everyone to look at Leon expectedly... before he sighed.

"Honestly, we don't know what exactly Gummi Space is... the man researching all of this disappeared a long time ago, along with my own world," Leon explained before looking at all of them.

"Now then, your all are done asking questions." Leon stated firmly as he pulled up a chair and sat down in it. "Now it's my turn to ask my questions, and get the answers I'm looking for," he continued, looking critically at all six of the travelers. "Who are you all, what are you all, and where did you all come from?" He pointed to Inuyasha first. "Dog boy, you start," Leon said as Inuyasha scoffed.

"Whatever," said Inuyasha, looking Leon in the eye. "My name is Inuyasha, and I'm a half-demon." Yusuke shivered when he heard this. "As for where I come from, I come from Japan, in its feudal era." At this, Yusuke and Kenshin immediately turned to him.

"You're from Japan?" they both asked simultaneously as Inuyasha nodded. "So am I!" they both said, once again as one, as all three of the 'Land of the Rising Sun' inhabitants looked at each other with slightly shocked looks. Leon cleared his throat as the three decided to put this conversation aside. With that, Leon then pointed to Yusuke.

"My name's Yusuke Urameshi, and I'm a Spirit Detective from the modern era of Japan," Yusuke said as he shrugged. "And that's basically it." Leon then pointed to Edward.

"I'm Edward Elric, and I'm a State Alchemist from a place called Amestris. I'm more widely known as the Full Metal Alchemist," Edward said boastfully. Leon simply nodded in slight irritation, and pointed to Naruto.

"The name's Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm a ninja from a place called Konoha. Remember it!" Naruto said, making most of the guys sweat drop at the kid's enthusiasm. The Gunblade wielder, particularly disturbed by the kid's energy, pointed to Kenshin, hoping he'd be a little more subdued.

"My name is Kenshin Himura, and I am a simple traveler from the Meiji era of Japan," Kenshin said calmly as the other two Japanese travelers nodded. Finally, Leon pointed to the last of them, Lloyd, glad this introduction was just about over.

"Well then, my name's Lloyd Irving, and I'm from a world called Sylvarant," Lloyd said, crossing his arms. "I'm a swordsman back at home, and a bodyguard to a being known to our world as the Chosen, my friend." Lloyd continued with a small smile. Everyone else, including Kenshin, was surprised that this kid, who looked barely eighteen, was actually guarding someone's life. Leon, however, simply sighed as he continued.

Exhaustion pulled at Leon's mind, not only because of the fights he had been in this entire day, but also thanks to the stress of dealing with these six. At any rate, Leon stood as he went back against the wall. "Well... at least now I have a small idea of where you all come from," he said as he slightly bumped his head against the wall. "Though, I have to admit... for you all to be here, the Heartless must have invaded your own worlds." As soon as the words left Leon's mouth, the six travelers immediately looked at him with worried stares.

Inuyasha leapt up, ran over to Leon, picked him up by the coat and slammed him against the wall as he got face to face with the Gunblade wielder. "Look, pal, you'd better get me on the next gummy whatever off this rock, and back to my world, OR ELSE!" Inuyasha shouted. Leon stared at him with an annoyed look as he grabbed onto Inuyasha's hands.

"First off, you'd better learn some patience... second..." Leon began as he started prying Inuyasha off of him. "Don't try my patience." Inuyasha merely scoffed and reaffirmed his grip on Leon. Leon merely sent another annoyed look at Inuyasha before....

In Aerith's Room

Sora, Donald, Goofy and Aerith were about ready to knock on the door to the other room, when a loud 'thump' resounded through the area, and a few objects fell off the sides of the walls as they immediately heard a familiar voice threatening someone. Aerith, after waiting a moment to see if anything else would happen, slowly walked over to the door. "Oh no... I wonder what happened," she muttered to herself as she opened the door a bit to see what was going on next door.

All four of them traversed through the doorway, only to be treated to a rather comical sight. Leon was dusting himself off by the door, while the half-demon who was threatening him was planted up against the wall, his head turned slightly so that he could send a small glare Leon's way.

Donald began cackling at Inuyasha's situation, while Sora, Goofy, and the other five travelers just laughed lightly. Aerith simply giggled."Leon," Aerith began, trying to lighten her laughter while Leon merely finished dusting off his jacket. "Did you really have to be so harsh? It was only his first time." Leon just shrugged at her statement.

"You've got to teach a dog what's right and what's wrong the first time, or they'll keep on doing it," Leon replied, cricking his neck. Aerith merely giggled; Leon did know a lot about misbehaving dogs... especially a certain black and white one. Leon then looked at the six travelers, each of whom was staring at him intently. "Anyway, none of you are leaving anytime soon. The only gummi ship available at the moment belongs to the Keyblade master and his group," Leon said. Many of the travelers' head sunk as Sora looked at Leon.

"Wait, why should they have to wait to go home?" Sora asked as he looked at all of them. "I mean, they have a home to go back to. Why should we keep them waiting?" Goofy nodded in agreement, but Donald just pouted, muttering something about 'pitying the jerks'. Leon merely shook his head as he looked Sora square in the eye.

"Because we don't know how long it would take to find their homes," Leon replied to Sora's question, looking to the others before speaking once more. "I have no idea where you all come from, which junction world would lead to your homes, or even the way you all arrived. If I were to wait to send the Keyblade Master, while we spent days, weeks, or maybe even months trying to find your worlds, believe me, there wouldn't be any worlds to find. The Heartless would see to that," Leon said in a blunt manner, causing Aerith to cringe a bit. She knew he was right, but Leon had such a way of putting it in the most pointed manner.

Every one of the displaced warriors looked down to the side, realizing that Leon was indeed correct. Said man merely sighed, thinking the conversation was over, and turned to Sora. "Come on, the Gummi Ship is waiting," Leon said in a stern voice. Sora nodded, he himself a bit demoralized by Leon's words. Sora, Donald, and Goofy all began following Leon towards the door, before Inuyasha stepped forward.

"Hold it!" Inuyasha said suddenly, causing everyone to stop and look at the half-demon. Inuyasha ground his teeth together for a few moments, looking as if he were struggling to speak what he had on his mind, before suddenly blurting out "I'll come with them!" Everyone on the room stared in amazement at the half-demon, completely caught off guard by his sudden words.

"Why?" was the only question Leon could think about asking. "Why go with him? It's not very likely that he'll run across your world while he's out there, and it would probably be faster if you just waited here for us to build you one specifically meant to-" The Gunblade toting swordsman began before Inuyasha interrupted.

"Yeah, and it might be faster if I went with him and we accidentally found my world!" Inuyasha said, a small growl in his voice. "I'm not just going to sit around here and do nothing while my world could get destroyed by those black things! I'm going with him, and I'll stay with him till I find my world, then I'm getting off," Inuyasha stated in no uncertain terms, before crossing his arms.

Leon sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose, considering the choice. On one hand, this guy was a loose cannon. I mean, even his sudden choice to travel with Sora, with all odds stacking up to say that he'd be less likely to find his home with the Keyblade Master than he would on his own, said a lot about how he thought things out.

Still, he was definitely powerful, and if Sora ever came across any Heartless too big for him, Donald, and Goofy to handle, this mutt could be a tremendous help...

"Alright," Leon stated, further shocking the rest of the persons in the room. "It'll take us a while to enlarge the ship in order to fit four people... but we can manage." Inuyasha nodded, walking forward to join the rest of the group. Everyone else in the room allowed Inuyasha's words to resonate within their minds. For Yusuke and Kenshin, this reasoning spoke volumes to them. He was right; they had people back in their world who needed their protection... they couldn't just sit and wait. They had to get back as soon as possible... the reward of them leaving now outweighed the risk.

So, slowly, the two of them stood up, both of them walking towards Sora and the others, giving a nod to Leon that gave the clear message 'he's right, and we're coming too'. Leon, for his part, seemed very annoyed, which Yusuke caught onto immediately.

"You can give me that look all you want! I'm coming, and that's final!" he said, glaring at Leon. "I made some promises and responsibilities back at home, and I'm not going to wait for them to die before I try to fulfill them!" Yusuke declared loudly. Squall merely gave Yusuke a stare that dripped with an 'oh really' disbelief. Still, couldn't turn these two down either; they were also valuable allies.

"Fine..." Squall said, expecting these two to be the last ones... before Naruto and Lloyd stood up. This time, Squall just shook his head, waiting for the inevitable explanation from these two... when they walked right past him, not saying a word. He looked back at them with a curious glance.

"Hey, that guy may be a jerk, but he's got a point... I made a promise-" Naruto began, before Lloyd picked up on the end.

"I have a responsibility... and I guess we need to get back as soon as possible... so, we need to come," Lloyd said as he and Naruto stood with the rest of the group, Donald growing very annoyed as the very people he had grown a deep dislike for appeared to be joining them, and Goofy just smiled away as more company joined them. Sora, in the meantime, noticed Edward just sitting around, saying nothing as he kept a thoughtful look on his face.

"Hey," Sora said suddenly, gaining Edward's attention. "Are... you going to join the bandwagon?" Sora asked in a somewhat confused manner, a little shocked all of these people would be joining him. Edward glanced over at Sora, shrugging at first, but then smirked as he jumped out of his chair.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming too... but on one condition," said Edward as everyone waited for him to speak. "When we reach my world, we'll stop, say hi, and then leave," he said with a small smile as everyone looked at him as if he'd grown a second head.

"Wait,what?" Donald said,amazed that the alchemist had actually said that.

"I… I had joined the military to help me find a way to restore my body, and my younger brother's body, back to normal. My brother, Alphonse, should be fine now, but…I don't know anymore if what I'm looking for to fix my own body is in my world anymore. I... I want to explore these worlds, see what amazing ideas and inventions I might find... heck, maybe I'd find something that would give me back my flesh and bone arm and leg," Edward explained quickly, scratching the side of his head as he did, averting his eyes from anyone in the room.

"So, I'm coming too. I really want to see what's out there," the alchemist concluded, restoring eye contact with the wizard. Donald was squawking loudly at this point as Edward joined the group by the door. Leon merely shook his head and sighed, figuring he might as well accept that these people would be traveling with the Keyblade Master.

"Then you're all going to be stuck here for a day or two while we fix up a... 'Gummi Barge' from what we have..." Leon said as Aerith looked at him with her head tilted to the side slightly.

"Gummi Barge?" Aerith asked as everyone looked at him while he shrugged.

"It's going to have to be way bigger than any ship we wanted to make. I mean, nine people… that means nine bedrooms, multiple restrooms, a huge kitchen with a huge food storage closet (refrigerator), a large cockpit... Cid and I are going to have to go to town on this thing if we're going to get it done soon..." Leon said as he began walking out the room. "You all stay around town while we work on the barge... not like you have anywhere else to go..." he said as he walked out and closed the door behind him.

As Leon left the room, Sora turned to face the six travelers with a large smile on his face. "Thank you for coming. It's going to be great, knowing that I have even more backup now!" Sora said, and Goofy nodded in approval.

"Yeah, now we're sure to beat the Heartless," Goofy said with a light-hearted chuckle accompanying it. They all looked at Donald who was still pouting slightly.

"Ahhh, we didn't need most of you... but if you feel so intent on coming..." Donald said as he gave glances to the travelers. Sora smirked, before a thoughtful look appeared on his face.

"Hey, I really don't know any of your names..." Sora said as he crossed his arms. "I don't think you know mine either," he said as he smiled. "Well, let's change that. My name's Sora." Goofy then stepped forward.

"The name's Goofy. Nice to meet ya," the shield wielding dog said as Donald just looked at them all.

"And my name's Donald Duck," the magician said as the six travelers either smiled, smirked, or shrugged at them.

"The name's Inuyasha," the half-breed said, staying away from the three.

"Yusuke Urameshi," the young Spirit Detective said as he shook Sora's and Goofy's hands.

"My name's Kenshin Himura, that it is," the former man-slayer said as he bowed to his new companions.

"Lloyd Irving. Nice to meet you all," the young swordsman said, a light grin plastered on his face.

"I'm Edward Elric," the State Alchemist said as he shook the hands of Sora and Goofy, and specifically avoided Donald.

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki, and don't you forget it!" Naruto shouted... before hastened footsteps resounded outside the door to the hall. Suddenly, the door slammed open as a black-haired, teenaged girl wearing shorts and a green tank top, with a beige colored scarf on her neck and a black headband on her brow busted through. Kenshin, upon seeing the female ninja, slapped his hands onto his face and began backing up to the nearest wall. Yuffie panted lightly while she looked around the room quickly before glaring at the travelers.

"Nice to see you too, Yuffie. Thank you for asking how we were..." Leon said in a somewhat sarcastic tone as Aerith giggled. Yuffie shook her head.

"I don't have time for you, Leon! Now, which one of you just said your name was Naruto Uzumaki?!" Yuffie asked angrily. The other five travelers slowly backed away from Naruto, who began sweating profusely as he finally figured out who... 'Yuffie'... was...

-------- Flashback -----------

_Inside of a forge's room, the orange-clad blond began stirring. He held his head with both of his hands as he tried to get up, only to find himself lodged inside of a crate. "Great..." he said as he put both hands on the side of the top of the crate and tried to push himself out, to no avail of course. "I need to stop eating so much ramen..." he said as he tried to push himself out some more. "I'm getting too fat..." He then tried worming his way out of the crate. Once again, that didn't help. In fact he could have sworn it only got himself in there tighter._

_Then, all of a sudden, three little creatures walked in. These creatures reached to about his mid-section, and were mostly white in color. Their eyes looked like they were, more or less, closed. Also, their noses were basically red balls. If that were all, the blond wouldn't be staring as much. However, he had never seen a creature with black wings on their backs, or a little red ball connected to their heads by an antenna bobbing around. The creatures saw the blond, and stared at him as they walked towards him. _

_"Hello, kupo," the one in the front said as the blond just blinked at them for a few seconds._

_"Uhh.... hello," he said as they tilted their heads while looking at him, making those 'kupo' noises._

_"What's your name, kupo?" they asked as the blond just stared right back at them._

_"Umm.... my name's Naruto Uzumaki," the blond, Naruto, said, without his usual excitement, due to the strangeness of the entire situation. The moogles saw the kunai pouch on his thigh and tilted their heads to the side._

_"Why do you have ninja gear on, kupo?" the freaky little creatures asked. Naruto grinned and began showing it off._

_"You mean this thing?" he asked as they nodded. "Well, I have it because I'm a ninja!" he shouted as he also tugged at his head band. The moogles tilted their heads to the side as they stared at him while 'kupo'ing to each other._

_"Do you know Miss Yuffie, kupo?" the weirdo creature asked as Naruto stared at it. In all honesty, Naruto had never heard of this 'Yuffie' person. But these things in front of him regarded her as 'Miss' Yuffie, meaning they must have held some form of respect for the person... if Naruto said he knew this person... maybe they'd help him out. He smirked as he nodded at the little creature._

_"I sure do. In fact, we're great friends!" Naruto shouted. The moogles quickly looked at each other and got into a huddle. Several 'kupo' sounds came from the huddle as they then looked forward at Naruto... and if Naruto didn't think it would have been crazy to think so, he could have sworn that they were glaring at him. However... his guess was corrected in the next moment when the little creatures pulled out several tools; shovels, hammers, etc._

_"OW OW OW OW OW OW!" Naruto shouted as suddenly he was thrown out a window, with the box still attached to him. When he landed, the box was the first thing to hit the ground, causing it to shatter, and even drove a few pieces of wood into him. "OUCH!" he shouted as he looked up to see the creatures peeking out the window with the tools in their hands._

_"Tell Miss Yuffie that she can't have any free goods, kupo! She's not allowed to steal them either, kupo!" they shouted as they pulled back into the window. Naruto just stood up and rubbed his rear-end while grumbling something about god damned, stupid, little creatures. Naruto then began walking around, looking at the place he was at._

--------- Back to the Present --------

Naruto, knowing that he would probably be sold out by one of the others, slowly raised his hand, hoping that if he just admitted to the crime, he would be forgiven... hopefully. "Ummm... I did?" Naruto said, buying himself a one-way ticket into Pain. Yuffie dashed forward and socked Naruto with a right hook, sending him face-first into a wall. The other occupants of the room cringed when Naruto slowly fell off the wall, revealing an imprint of his body upon the surface. As he lay on the floor, his head throbbing from the blow, Naruto merely stated one thing. "She hits... even harder than... Sakura..." He stayed down on the floor, too hurt to even try to get up.

Everyone merely looked at the female ninja, before slowly creeping away from her. Yuffie sighed, before beaming a huge smile. "That's another wrong-doer defeated by the great ninja Yuffie!" Yuffie declared as she pointed at Naruto. "And don't use my name around town again, or else I'll do worse than punch you, shorty!" At that moment, a rather large throbbing vein grew not only on Naruto's head, but on Edward's head as well.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHORTY?!" Naruto shouted as he stood up and got into Yuffie's face, before the pipsqueak alchemist shortly followed afterwards.

"WHO YOU CALLING AN ITSY BITSY MOUSE THAT'S ABOUT TO BE FED TO A SNAKE?!" Edward shouted, causing a throbbing vein to appear on Yuffie's head.

"I WASN'T TALKING TO YOU, YOU STUPID MIDGET!" Yuffie shouted at Edward as the vein on his head doubled in size. "I WAS TALKING TO THIS STUPID MIDGET!" she shouted as she pointed to the other ninja, whose vein also grew in size.

"THAT'S IT!!" the two tiny blonds shouted as they tackled Yuffie to the ground, and the three of them started an all out brawl all across the floor. The others simply watched as the spectacle in front of them moved around the room. When they finally stopped moving, Edward was on top of Yuffie and Naruto, slamming both of their heads up and down onto the floor. Suddenly, both ninja tackled Ed, and the free-for-all started all over again.

When they stopped their movement again, it was the very pissed off female ninja choking the two blonds till they began turning purple. The two boys removed her grip, and then tackled Yuffie, and the 'Death Match' began anew. A few moments later an advantage was grasped, and Naruto had his legs around both Yuffie and Edward, giving them both noogies as they yelled in pain. Both of them tackled the hyper-active ninja to the ground, and the rumble started again in full.

It was just moments later when the fighting died down to the point where the spectators could easily see the action. This time Naruto was biting Edward's natural leg, while Edward choked Yuffie, who at the time was punching Naruto in the head. This kept up for several seconds before Aerith whistled, drawing the three apparently insane people's attention as they looked at the group. Their faces all went slightly red as they stood up and dusted themselves off. Aerith shook her head slightly as she looked at Yuffie.

"Yuffie, have you gotten the damage reports?" Aerith asked. Yuffie nodded a bit after rubbing the back of her very sore head...

"Yeah, yeah... I gotta tell you, Aerith, it's really bad out there," Yuffie said as she shook her head. "I mean, explosions, craters, buildings toppling over, even little pillars in the middle of the streets are practically everywhere," she said as the six travelers looked sheepish and worried, knowing that it was the damage they caused that she was talking about. The six were just hoping that no one would say anything.

Unfortunately for them, Sora decided to blab.

"Hey, I bet I know who did that!" Sora shouted as the travelers face vaulted. "I bet it was some of these guys. I mean, when they fought with us, the damage was incredible!" Sora said as Yuffie and Aerith nodded.

" We already guessed that... that's why we're going to have them do a little something for us..." Yuffie said as she smiled evilly, and the six travelers were suddenly _very_ worried about their health...

A Couple of Hours Later

In the Third District, where the huge battle between the armored heartless and the new group took place, there were several grunts, groans, and blue sparks going through the area. The nine were now working together to fix the awesome amount of damage done to the city. Lloyd and Kenshin were filling one of the craters with dirt again, getting it ready to be paved over once more. Edward was off on his own, using his alchemy to quickly fix some of the areas... which was tiring in itself.

Yusuke and Inuyasha were off, using their immense strength to pull up a wooden support beam for a new house. When it was in place, several Naruto clones would begin banging on it, using hammers and nails to force the beam to stay put. Even Sora, Donald, and Goofy were hard at work, covering craters that Lloyd and Kenshin had filled with stone to get a sense of normality in the area. Now, just because they had to do this... didn't mean they were happy about it.

"Grrrrr… this sucks!" Inuyasha shouted as he and Yusuke used their great pools of strength to keep the beam up.

"Really, Captain Obvious? I thought I was having the time of my life!" Yusuke shouted before he and Inuyasha started glaring at each other. They almost let go of their grip on the ropes, which nearly caused the beam to fall.

"Careful, you two! If you let go, this thing falls!" Naruto shouted as he and his clones kept on hammering nails into the beam. Inuyasha and Yusuke muttered curses underneath their breath, unable to express their violent intents any other way. Meanwhile, Edward just finished fixing a section of wall that had all of its pieces nearby as he sat down.

"Whew, Alchemy may make things easier... but it sure does get tiring after a while," Edward said as Lloyd and Kenshin looked at him with indignant looks.

"Oh yeah, just rub it in why don't you..." Lloyd muttered with false hurt in his voice, before he smirked at Edward. "But Edward, you really have the easiest job out of all of us..." he continued as Kenshin nodded.

"Indeed... however, I cannot quite decide if Sora's, Donald's, and Goofy's job is easier than Edward's," Kenshin said as everyone looked at the three aforementioned helpers, who, as stated before, were currently placing stone on top of the filled in craters.

"This is unfair! We didn't even cause any of this damage!!!" Donald shouted out his grievances. Sora nodded in agreement, while Goofy just looked at them.

"But Donald, it would make things harder and slower if we didn't help." Goofy replied before Donald gave him an annoyed look.

"FOR THEM! NOT FOR US!" he screamed as Sora simply sighed.

"Let's just try to finish this as quickly as possible..." Sora muttered as everyone sighed before getting back to work. This was going to be the prelude to the beginning of the group who would save the worlds....

Pray that they are successful.

_Next Time: Lift off, and getting to Wonderland!_

_The Gummi Barge is finally completed, and the group of warriors can finally begin their journey, not only to find their own worlds, but to also help Sora on his quest. But the flight to the first new world is rough... will they be able to defeat the Heartless in Gummi Space?_

R&R


	3. Chapter 3

Kingdom Hearts: Different Hearts

Hello there folks, Arganaut here with the latest chapter of Kingdom Hearts: Different Hearts. Now, in our last chapter the strange new travelers joined up with Sora, Donald, and Goofy in hopes of finding their own worlds (and perhaps helping to save the universes on the way). In this chapter we hope to actually get off of Traverse Town, and into the vast expanse of Gummi Space, and to a new world. But, before we do, there's the small matter of reviews I must get to:

**Paintball-Gamer-** Thanks, and I'll be sure to remember to keep focused on my sentence structure in this chapter.

GreyMonkey- While those are good ideas, you'll just have to wait and see what my co-author and I implement.

**FictionReader98-** Well, there's a lot of questions there that'll be answered in that chapter. As for the King Idiot question, well, we'll have to wait and see how long it takes for the others to do something stupid.

Well, with these reviews out of the way, its time to begin the next chapter of Kingdom Hearts: Different Hearts!

Normal Speak- Hello

Al-Bhed- _Rammu_

Chapter 3: All Aboard the Highwind II

---------- Traverse Town 1st District ---------

In Traverse Town's first district, just beyond the jewelry shop, and across from the, normally, blocked off entrance of the Moogle's furnace, there was a tiny little street-side shop that, when compared to the other in-door shops of the 1st district, seemed oddly out of place. The goods that the shop sold, Gummi-blocks for Gummi-ships, also made the shop unique and, quite frankly, the only shop in Traverse Town that sold the mysterious building materials.

The owner of the shop, who was currently leaning back in his chair, reading an old newspaper, also seemed out of place. While most of the shop-keepers were rather well dressed and attentive, this man was about as casually dressed as you could get: wearing brown-green slacks that had old stains splattered all over them, as well as several burns. His boots, brown, had heavily worn soles, the laces seemingly just barely holding together. Above a plain white shirt he wore a navy-blue flight jacket, its sleeves rolled up to his elbows. A pair of brown engineer gloves covered his hands and forearms, seemingly even more worn that anything else he was wearing.

On his forehead were an old pair of flight goggles that kept his blond hair from his face, the right lens of which were cracked.

Cid Highwind had worn these clothes for a long time, they carried stories with him that he felt he couldn't afford to ever forget. The old gummi-ship builder sighed as he pulled a cigarette and lighter from his pocket, preparing to light the tobacco-stick... well, before a certain brown-haired ex-SeeD promptly snatched it out of his hand.

"Cid, I thought Shera wanted you to try and cut back on the cigarettes?" Leon said sternly as he crushed the cigarette in the palm of his hand, Cid slamming his hands on the counter of the stand as he glared at the boy.

"Dammit Squall!" Cid shouted, recoiling only after he saw the look Leon gave him. "I mean... dammit Leon! Why the hell do you only show up when I'm about to have a smoke!" Cid shouted as Leon shook his head. "That would've been my first smoke of the day dammit! I've been cutting back but dammit unless I have some tea I'm going to be craving a cigarette, and if I'm craving a cigarette I start getting pissed off, and when I get pissed off I start screaming my head off!" Cid shouted, getting progressively louder and louder as he went on.

"So unless you want me to start screaming at you, don't stop me from smoking!" Cid roared, ironically enough, as Leon just stood there and listened to his old friend's rant.

"You done?" Leon asked in an impatient manner, Cid sighing as he leaned back in his seat once again.

"Pretty much." Cid replied in a still tense manner, leaning back in his seat. "Anyway, what're ya here for Leon? You don't normally stop by to chit-chat." The old gummi-ship builder asked, his eyes locked on the young man's eyes.

"I need you to work on the Highwind." Leon said in a curt manner, Cid shaking his head.

"For the hundredth damn time boy, I ain't fixing up my baby just for ya to go out an-"

"I don't want you to do it for me Cid-" Leon quickly interrupted Cid's sentence, which merely annoyed the old engineer, and caused him to interrupt the ex-SeeD just as quickly.

"'You need to do it for the others': I know the whole deal boy, and quite frankly I'm getting sick and tired of you trying to browbeat me into letting you take my baby right back out into the fray for no damn good reaso-"

"It's for the Keyblade Wielder and others traveling with him." Leon stated quite simply, which promptly forced the blond pilot sitting in front of him to silence himself, only staring blankly at the young man as he blinked repeatedly. Leon could only inwardly chuckle as he watched his normally loud friend try to come up with something, anything, but ultimately fail each time, only able to come up with a gargled mess. Finally, Cid stood straight up, glaring at Leon for a mere moment before he reached to his sides for the small stand's sliding curtain.

"Give me three days." The blond growled out in a haughty manner as he slid the curtains closed, Leon merely smirking in victory as he began walking away, deciding to resign himself to watch over those nine 'warriors' fix up the districts.

Cid, in the meanwhile, sighed grumpily as he exited the little shop, hands shoved into his pockets as he made his way across the 1st District, giving dirty glares to people he crossed along the way. Finally Cid came around to a house at the very edge of the city, right beside the giant gates that lead out of Traverse Town.

Cid just popped the door open and walked into a pretty barren room. The engineer let a sigh loose as he turned around and locked the door behind him. "Those damn kids never lock the damn door before they leave..." the blond man muttered to himself, too far into his sour mood to even shout like he normally would: after all, aside from the hotel in the 2nd District, this was their main base of operations, and Cid really didn't want it open for any snoops to just walk in and see what was happening.

The room actually looked rather normal, nothing outstanding about it, aside from a large red switch on the side of the farthest wall from the front door. Cid casually strode over to the switch and flipped it down.... then flipped it back up and then down.

"......" Cid just stood there and stared at the infernal switch for a moment, before he just took one step back, and then kicked the entire switch in. Suddenly, grinding gears could be heard as the floor around Cid began to sink. The floor lowered through a small shaft, stopping at the bottom to a blank metal door, which slowly slid to the side to reveal what Cid would jokingly call his 'home away from home'.

Cid walked across a hanging walkway into a large hanger bay, which he and the others had discovered when they first tried to land in Traverse Town. Cid and the others had been told about Traverse Town by King Mickey when they were traveling... well, by the time they had gotten anywhere near Disney Castle they were more or less floating through space. Traverse Town, from the beginning of this mess, had been a place where refugees from destroyed worlds would end up... if they weren't swallowed up by the darkness. So the hanger was constructed to receive these immigrants.

Cid had actually thought it was a fortunate stroke of luck that had brought the group to Traverse Town. He thought that he'd be able to spend time fixing up the Highwind and getting it ready to go back and take back their home... that is, until Mickey filled them in on what happened.

Radiant Gardens... no, Hollow Bastion, was now a dump, filled with near-never ending hordes of 'those little black things', as Yuffie had so generously named the Heartless at the time, and that their leader, Ansem the Wise, had disappeared completely... heck not even the seemingly all-knowing King Mickey knew where he was. Add to that Hallow Bastion was now also surrounded BY the little Heartless bastards, which had nearly destroyed the Highwind on its way away from the place…

This only had deeply demoralized Cid. The old engineer had seen his masterpiece ship torn up once, and even if he rebuilt it, he didn't think it likely they could take back Hollow Bastion. What gave finality to Cid being unwilling to rebuild the Highwind was Leon's irrationality on the manner. The boy kept on pushing Cid to rebuild the Highwind for this reason or that, and frankly Cid eventually grew tired of it. He wasn't going to rebuild the Highwind just so that brown-haired fool would wreck it on whatever crazy expedition he'd try to take it, and the group, on.

'Speaking of the Highwind...' Cid thought rather mournfully as he flipped on the hanger bay lights, illuminating the entire bay... and revealing one messed up hunk of junk in the middle of it. Of course, this hunk of junk wasn't always a hunk of junk: in fact, in one point in time it was the greatest airship ever built... and at another point, the greatest Gummi Ship ever built. When Ansem had first discovered the 'Gummi Blocks', as they would soon find they were called, Cid became enthralled with them, becoming nearly obsessed with finding out every little bit about the material.

Soon enough he replaced most of the material on the Highwind with Gummi Blocks, making a fast ship faster, a durable ship more durable, and the greatest ship even greater. Of course... when they had to jettison from Hallow Bastion, those little bastards weren't exactly keen on just letting them go. They attacked, and though Cid had done a good enough job holding them off the first time... they weren't exactly safe all the following times.

Cid wasn't thrilled about sending his old masterpiece back out into Gummi Space... but then again, this was the Keyblade Wielder... and Cid wasn't going to be the one who doomed all the worlds to darkness.

"Looks like its time to get you back in shape old girl..." Cid said as he took a very deep breath, his face turning a bit red in the process. "SHERA!" The blond man shouted as the sound of his voice reverberated around the hanger. Cid waited patiently for a few seconds, and as he prepared to shout for the woman again, he felt a hand on the back of his shoulder.

"Yes Cid?"

"HOLY HELL!" Cid suddenly shouted as he nearly jumped out of his skin, turning to look right at the brown-haired, be-spectacled woman that had so easily snuck up on him. Her attire consisted of of a yellow blouse and black pair of pants. "Dammit Shera, don't do that!" Cid shouted at Shera, but said woman just smiled, combing her left hand through her hair, a small gold ring on the ring finger.

"Sorry Cid, you called?" Shera asked with a small laugh as Cid calmed down, turning back to look at the Highwind.

"Shera, it's time to get the old bird off the ground and back into space." The engineer said slowly, his wife merely blinking in amazement.

"So, Leon finally convinced you?" She asked in a stunned manner, Cid nodding as he took off his jacket.

"Yeah, it's hard to turn down the damn Keyblade Wielder, after all..." Cid said, his comment causing Shera to begin gaping at him, surprise after surprise hitting her as Cid just narrowed his eyes. "Well, stop gawking; we got a lot of work to do! We need to redesign the schematics to improve the ship; we have to strip away what we get rid of, and then use whatever the hell we have on hand to rebuild the ship, no time to waste!" The engineer raved as he began heading towards the far end of the walkway, a small door at the end of it.

After Shera's shock passed, she looked back at Cid, a small smile forming on her face.

"Would you like some tea as well?" She asked, stopping Cid dead in his tracks.

"Yes I'd like some damn tea!" Cid shouted back at her, before continuing to walk, leaving Shera to chuckle to herself as she prepared to make her husband's tea.

---------- Traverse Town 2nd District ---------- 3 Days Later ----------

"Alright guys... let's do this! One... two... three!" Sora exclaimed as he, Donald, and Goofy pushed all together, pushing a large board up along with the rest of a fresh house frame. As soon as the board was up, Goofy left Donald and Sora to hold up the board as he tossed his shield into nails that had been placed into the board, solidly nailing the board into place. The three inspected their handiwork with grins all around... well, Goofy and Sora were grinning, Donald was still upset that they had been roped into helping the other 'six stooges' fix up Traverse Town in the first place.

"Gawrsh, this place is starting to look good as new again," the Knight Captain said in a jovial tone, despite the fact that his feathered friend was hardly in a similar mood.

"Aaaah, phooey!" Donald said as he began squawking like crazy, the white duck having ranted and raved about the mess for the past few days. Sora shrugged, taking Donald's mild slip into insanity as a sign that he had just about had it.

"Look, we only have to keep this up for a while longer, then we blast off into space to look for my friends..." Sora said, Donald huffing at the Keyblade Wielder.

"After we find King Mickey!" The court magician shouted, Sora and Donald about ready to go at it as Goofy grabbed a hold of both of them.

"Now hold on now, maybe we'll be fortunate and find both at the same time, Hy-uck!" Goofy said. Donald just sighed at his long-time friend's never-ending optimism.

"Yeah, maybe!" Sora said, Goofy's smile having quickly infected Sora as, suddenly, they all heard a slow cough. The three turned their heads to see Leon walking towards them, a rather stern expression on his face as he approached them. "Oh, hey Leon! Is the ship ready?" Sora asked the man, tilting his head to the side as Leon curtly nodded.

"Yeah, it's ready: gather up the others and meet me by the large gates in the 1st District..." The gunblade-user stated firmly, Donald feathers quickly getting ruffled.

"Why do we have to go and get them?!" The magician squawked, as Leon merely sighed.

"Because I said so, now get to it." Leon said in an annoyed manner, as Sora and Goofy dragged off a very annoyed Donald, who merely muttered under his breath as he glared back at Leon.

--------- Traverse Town 1st District ----------

Leon stood outside of the primary hideout in the first district, tapping his foot quickly as he awaited the arrival of the Keyblade Wielder's group. In his mind, this was the moment, this was the time to start turning the tide against the Heartless... and frankly, he was beginning to wonder if just sending out the Sora, Donald and Goofy to get the others was a good idea.

Aerith had told him that they needed to learn how to be civil with each other without him bearing over their shoulders and browbeating them into behaving. Admittedly, he had thought her right at that moment, and relented, allowing her plan to take hold... of course, now he was beginning to wish he had ignored the idea and followed along, if only because it would mean he'd have dragged all of them here by now.

When Leon had just about had enough he suddenly heard rather ruckus yelling coming from behind the other side of the district. Sure enough, the group was deeply involved in yet another shouting match, with Donald squawking down the mutt, Inuyasha, the pipsqueaks, Edward and Naruto, and the punk, Yusuke. Sure enough Sora, Goofy, Lloyd and Kenshin were merely standing at the side, trying desperately to diffuse the situation.

'Alright, Aerith's plan isn't working... time to get back to the tried and true method.' Leon thought to himself as he raised his right arm, a small ball of energy gathering in his palm. Meanwhile, amongst the in-fighting, Sora was still trying to stop the fighting amongst the other members of the group, thinking that as the universe saving hero of legend he should be able to somehow reign in these guys. Of course, when trying to rationally stop the shouting, he tried the only logical option left: shouting.

"Hey guys, please, stop fighting!" Sora yelled at the others which, while it didn't have an immediate effect, did seem to calm them down right after a red ball of energy blew up right at the group's feet. The either members of this hastily assembled team looked at Sora with a bit of a horrified expression, the teen looking at the ground where the explosion had ripped through with a small grin. "Cool, did I do that?!"

"No, I did." Leon said slowly, causing all nine of the other-worlders to look at the Gunblade wielder. "Now follow me, we don't have much more time to waste." Leon continued as he turned back towards the house, having the group follow him... somewhat reluctantly.

The ex-SeeD led the boy and his lot into the house, the extremely normal interior of the home throwing off some of the group members.

"What, we going to have tea in your little home before we get out of here?" Yusuke said skeptically, Leon merely glaring back at the young teen.

"Just get over here; we need to move, fast." Leon said in a stern and, seemingly, anxious manner that caused Donald and Goofy to raise their eyebrows, never having quite ever known Leon to exhibit that sort of tone. Without further word, though with many snorts of derision about the house's floral patterned walls, the nine other-worlders moved over to the area around Leon, the more insightful members of the group noticing the switch on the wall.

"Welcome..." Leon began, flipping the switch as the mechanisms of the elevator kicked in, the floor descending into the hanger bay... inspiring a sight that caused everyone, save Leon, to drop their jaws in amazement. "To the Traverse Town Hanger... and what will be transporting you across Gummi Space: the Highwind II." Leon finished, Sora, Naruto, and Lloyd leapt forward and looked down at the ship, the rest of the group merely standing back with their collective jaws slackened.

"COOL!" The three shouted as they looked down at the newly refurbished ship. The Highwind II bore many striking resemblances to its former form: the main flight deck of the ship was still right at the front of the ship, the glass window curved around the nose of the refurbished craft to allow for easy vision to what was directly ahead of the ship. The two giant fans that had propelled the original ship were still there, and the old 'Highwind' lettering was still on the side of the ship, though it was now joined by two dashes.

The largest changes to the ship seemed to be its propulsion: The old thruster turbines that had once moved the Highwind were still in place at the backside of the ship: however they were now far more streamlined than the original turbines. Said turbines were now not the only forms of propulsion that would push the Highwind II along, the ship had at its back two large thruster engines on a moveable axis alongside six smaller thrusters alongside the bottom of the ship, each on their own axis as well.

The rough and rusted exterior had been replaced, and now the ship's main body was pure a constant gleam of silver, interrupted only by weld marks and bolts to help hold the material together. Higher up on the body from the propellers and before the cockpit, two small wings from the old ship still remained, meant to help stabilize the ship. Underneath the main body was a small bay connected to the underside, much like the previous Highwind, with a small plank of gummi material outlined from the rest of it, likely the entrance to the ship.

Every single person in Sora's group, even Donald and Goofy, who had seen a fair amount of gummi ships in their time, heck, having even arrived in Traverse Town on the comparatively tiny Kingdom. This... this was just massive, and was probably the most impressive ship they had ever seen in their entire life.

"Just... unbelieveable..." Goofy said; his eyes wide with shock and delight. Donald just nodded dumbly as Leon shrugged.

"Cid never disappoints...." Leon stated rather dryly as the elevator stopped, and the ten of them walked off of it. Leon simply walked along, leading the Keyblade Wielder's group along the walkways of the hanger, the group merely staring at the ship the entire time. Leon guided the group down to the bottom level of the hanger, before suddenly shouting.

"Hey, Cid, get out here!" Leon's voice rang in the hanger, as some banging could be heard in the bottom bay of the Highwind II. The sounds of gears grinding suddenly started up as a plank began lowering from the bay.

"Alright, alright keep your pants on boy!" Cid's gruff voice could be heard just as the walkway finally touched the ground, and footsteps could be heard making their way down. As Leon led the group in front of the bay's entrance, the nine fighters now could plainly see Cid, taking a long drag on a cigarette that was freshly lit. "Alright, I'm here, now where is the Keyblade... Wielder's..." Cid question died off as he looked up at the group, his eyes rolling over the entirety of the group very, very slowly. Cid blinked for a while, before taking another drag on his cigaratte.

"Leon, there seems to be a mistake: you told me you were bringing the Keyblade Wielder's group... NOT THE !#$ING CIRCUS REJECTS!" Cid screamed at Leon, who merely slapped his forehead, Sora and the others merely sweat dropping at Cid's rudeness.

"Hey, old fart, you'd better watch what you say!" Yusuke suddenly shouted, already not liking the aged engineer, a feeling which Cid returned in full.

"Yeah, and what are ya going to do, slick, use all that grease in your hair to make me slip?" Cid said with a loud laugh, Yusuke's teeth grinding against each other as the ex-pilot turned his head towards Leon. "Now Leon, I know ya ain't stupid, but this is probably... no, IS the biggest damn Hail Mary I've ever seen anyone throw in my entire life! Even given that Donald and Goofy are with 'em-" Cid said with a curt nod to the Court Magician and the Knight. "-there's still the fact you're putting the fate of all worlds in the hands of a bunch of kids!" Cid shouted as Donald and Goofy nodded back to Cid, while everyone else mentioned gave him an extremely agitated look, save for Kenshin who meekly raised his hand.

"Actually, I am twenty-eigh-" Kenshin tried to explain, as Cid interrupted him.

"Whatever!" The engineer said, disregarding the samurai with a mere wave of his hand, leaving Kenshin a little dumbfounded. Leon, having listened to Cid long enough, kept the pilot from continuing.

"Look, they may not be the most experienced looking lot we've ever met." Leon said, dropping another insult on the already beleaguered self-esteems of the collective group. "However, I have seen them fight, and they fought well, and since we need to stay here as a last stand before Disney Castle, they're the only ones who can go with the Keyblade Wielder." Leon said as he jabbed his thumb over towards Sora, who raised his head up a bit. Cid, evaluating Sora, just shook his head, a small series of curses strung underneath his breath as he looked at the group as a whole.

"Well, what the hell are you all gawking at, get the hell up here!" Cid roared as he walked back up the walkway, Sora and the others looking at each other before all nine of them ascended with Cid, Leon watching them as they did.

"Hey." Leon said suddenly, catching the nine's collective attention. "Good luck." Leon stated simply as he walked off, the group watching him leave as, suddenly, the plank they were on began to raise itself up, sealing the lower bay of the Highwind II up. The nine looked around the bottom bay with little interest: really it was just a loading bay, room enough for large supplies, or copious amounts of people, to get in and out of the Highwind. Cid stood by a set of large metal doors which opened nearly the moment the nine walked in.

"This here elevator will take ya to the main body of the ship: your pilot'll give ya a quick run around the ship to make sure you all know what not to touch." Cid said quite simply, Donald walking forward to the old man.

"Pilot, why would we need a pilot, I'm capable of flying a Gummi-"

"You've flown tiny little Gummi Ships, Donald." Cid interrupted the white duck, causing Donald to huff a bit. "The Highwind II is just simply out of your league, so you lot are going to need someone to get this ship around Gummi Space." Cid said as Edward just crossed his arms.

"Why wouldn't you be our pilot? After all, you built this thing, who'd be more suited for the job?" The alchemist asked, the old engineer just shrugging.

"Hey, I would, but I gotta stay here and help out with refugees..." Cid began, before thinking a more private thought.

'That and scavenge for some new parts for the Highwind II...' The ex-pilot thought, before shaking said thought from his head.

"Anyway, just get your asses up there, the pilot you have is capable." Cid said in a 'and that's that' tone, as the nine merely complied and walked into the open doors, finding the elevator to be quite spacious. "Hit the top button." Cid said as Sora complied, hitting said button as the doors closed, Cid throwing one last wave at them before disappearing from their sight.

The nine rode the elevator up the trip to the main body of the ship being a rather long one.

"So, who do you guys think is going to be the pilot?" Sora asked the rest, everyone shrugging.

"Gawrsh, I don't know, but whoever Cid chose I'm sure we can trust." Goofy said as Donald nodded, if a bit halfheartedly, in agreement. Naruto just huffed as he crossed his arms.

"The pilot's probably going to be just like the smelly old guy." The orange-clad ninja said as Inuyasha, for the first time, agreed with the runt.

"How much you wanna bet the pilot's an even bigger bastard than that Cid guy, and they're just dumping him off on us." Inuyasha said, as they all looked expectantly at Donald and Goofy.

"Hey, we didn't even know we'd get a pilot other than me or Goofy, alright?!" Donald said, Goofy nodded in agreement as the group just sighed, waiting to get to the top of the elevator. In reality, all of them were quite anxious to see what the ship was like: after all, most of them never even heard of an airplane before, and now they were inside the most advanced spacecraft known throughout the worlds? Heck, Lloyd was practically vibrating with excitement at the prospect of flying in such a ship, a sentiment that was clearly shared with Sora.

Suddenly, there was a small 'ding' as the elevator came to a halt. The nine immediately forced their attention to the opening metal doors.

"Nice to meet you all, my name is Shera, and I'll be your pilot." A voice from the other side of the doors said as they opened completely, stunning all of the nine as what was, in fact, not some old, smelly, angry old guy, but was a very pretty woman, slightly younger than Cid himself, and wearing a flight jacket and pair of cargo pants similar to Cid's, if cleaner and much more official looking than the aged engineer's. She even had a blue pilot's hat, to boot. All nine of the group suddenly felt their jaws slacken, as Sora was the first to finally get his head back on straight.

"Ummm... nice to meet you too... I'm Sora, and these guys are-" Sora began as Shera just chuckled a bit.

"Leon already told me about all of you." The pilot said as Sora, Donald, Goofy, Kenshin, and Lloyd all smiled at her, while the others began sweating, thinking that the Gunblade Wielder wouldn't have been so kind in his description of them. "So you must be... Donald, Goofy, Inuyasha, Yusuke, Kenshin, Lloyd..." She named off each of the group as she pointed at them, before stopping at Naruto and Edward with a bit of a curious look.

"Naruto and Edward?" She said, pointing to Ed as she said 'Naruto', and the other short blond when she said 'Edward'. This, of course, caused both to blink.

"Actually, I'm Edward, this punk over here is Naruto..." The alchemist said, causing the ninja to glare at him. Shera looked a tad sheepish as she laughed nervously at the two boys.

"I'm sorry, the only description Leon gave me of you two were 'short blonds'." Shera stated honestly, as both short blonds immediately wigged out.

"What?!" Both shouted as they tried to push the elevator button to go back down, everyone else stopping them.

"Let me go, I'm going to teach that bastard a lesson!" Naruto roared as Ed nodded in agreement.

"He'll pay for saying I'm as big as a single grain of sand!" Edward screamed alongside his fellow blond, the rest of the group still holding onto the two 'shorties' for dear life, while Shera chuckled a little bit, drawing the attention of the nine.

"My, excitable lot aren't you?" The wife of Cid said as the group blinked, Naruto and Edward's anger almost immediately disarmed by Shera's calm response. "At any rate, before we launch there are some others I'd like to introduce you around the ship, so if you would follow me." She said as she beckoned the nine to follow her which, after dropping the two blonds back on the floor, they did.

As the group meandered down the halls of the Highwind II's main body, they all stared in amazement at the architectural wonder before them, Edward specifically taking in every detail of the ship's make up. Shera merely smiled as she looked back at them.

"I see you all rather like my husband's work on the ship." Shera said, which caused all of the group to snap their heads at Shera.

"Yo-you mean that jerk is your husband?!" Yusuke shouted as the others looked just as surprised, Shera merely nodding.

"He's a bit abrasive, but yes, Cid is my husband." Shera said, knowing that even the word 'abrasive' was rather light compared to the reality.

"Sorry we seem so surprised, but we would've never guessed that when Cid was talking about having a wife he was talking about someone like you.... I mean." Donald began as he suddenly realized what he just said must've sounded like, Goofy stepping in to help his buddy out.

"What Donald means is that Cid can be abrasive, we would've never guessed he'd have married someone... well, nice and quiet." The Knight Captain said, causing Shera to laugh.

"I understand, and believe me, you're not the first one to have been surprised by that." Shera said, recalling all the way back to when they first told their friends of their engagement: Leon had looked like he was about ready to pass out from the sheer shock of it all. Before the conversation could continue, a sudden aroma filled the group's nostrils, causing them all to stop and take in the delicious smell.

"Wow... that smells really good..." Sora said as the rest agreed with the Keyblade Wielder, Shera nodding as she stopped in front of a door, slowly opening it to allow a full blast of aroma to leak out of the room.

"Well then, this will be our first stop then: the kitchen. Also I'd like to introduce you to the cooks." Shera said as she waved the nine in, the guys all slowly walking into the kitchen, their eyes closed as the aroma drew them in. When they opened their eyes... they went wide with shock as they took in the scene in front of them.

Rats. Rats everywhere! Rats by the sink, rats by the oven, rats in the cupboards, rats around the food, rats with their little grimy claws in the food! Out of the entire group, only Goofy, Donald, Inuyasha and Shera were completely calm. The others, in the meanwhile:

"What the- WHAT ARE RATS DOING IN THE FOOD?!?!?!" Sora suddenly exclaimed, even the islander knowing that rats plus food was not an equation that worked out well.

"Somebody get an exterminator!" Yusuke screamed... which immediately drew the absolute attention of all the rats, whom looked at the panicked members of the group with a bit of a scowl... which only freaked them out more because there were rats, scowling at them.

"He used the 'e' word...." Donald said with a small cackle, as Lloyd snapped his head over to them."Wh-why aren't you guys more freaked out!?!?" Lloyd said as, suddenly, one of the smaller rats, a black furred one, approached the group, Donald, Goofy, and Shera smiling a bit.

"Gawrsh, he's why." Goofy said as he walked forward, and leaned down towards the tiny rat. "Hy-uck, hey there Remy." Goofy said to the rat, said rat waving, WAVING, back at Goofy.

"Hey there Goofy, how are ya doing?" The little rat, Remy apparently, said back to Goofy... which once again sent most of the group into an uproar.

"IT CAN TALK!??!" Naruto and Edward blurted out, Kenshin quickly following up.

"IT HAS A NAME?!" The ex-Battosai exclaimed with a shocked expression, Donald merely rolling his eyes at them all.

"You've seen a duck that can do magic, a dog with a shield, and that mutt over there with the ears, and you're freaking out about this?" The foul tempered mage said with a raised, expectant eyebrow. Inuyasha, while feeling slightly embarrassed at having to agree with Donald, joined in with his own comment.

"... I'd hate to admit it, but the duck is right, there've been stranger things than this to be seen..." Inuyasha said, he and Donald once again trading glares with each other as the others, rather sheepishly, looking off to the side.

"Sorry." They all said in unison, as Remy waved it off.

"Don't worry about it, when Disney Castle would have visitors we'd get that a lot." Remy the rat said with a broad smile, as Shera stood, facing the group with a smile of her own.

"Donald and Goofy could probably tell you this, but Remy and his clan were the royal cooks back at their home." Shera said as Remy nodded.

"When I heard that the Keyblade Wielder would need someone to help make food for him and his group, my clan and I jumped at the opportunity." Remy said as they walked over to the rest of the rats. "Though I just hope Daisy will forgive me for just leaving the castle with my dad and the cooks in training." Remy said as Donald suddenly sighed and shook his head.

"Ooooh... Daisy's not going to be happy..." Donald said slowly, Remy's father and the rat cooks in training being infamous for... sub-par cooking... and Daisy was well known for having a bit of a temper... and taking it out on Donald. The guys slowly looked around the kitchen, admiring the... organization of it, despite it being run by rats.

"Soooo... how do you guys... ya know, keep clean?" Sora asked, at this point beyond the fact that rats were cooking for them, and more concerned with how clean they were.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I have made sure that we keep a very clean set of hands working on the food. We always walk on our hind legs so we don't get our front paws on the floor, and even if we move on all fours, we make sure to wash our front paws before working on the food. Also, there's a steamer over there which we're required to go through every hour." Remy said, pointing over to said machine, which rose and revealed a thick steam which slowly floated away from underneath the machine. A group of rats ran out from through the mist, going back to their assigned station.

"Anyway, the first meal of the trip will be finished in... about twenty minutes." Remy said, turning to the group. "Donald, Goofy, Shera, good to see you all again, and the rest of ya, well, I hope you all will enjoy our cooking." Remy said with a small nod, before noticing something out the corner of his eye. "No no no! It's not two pinches of rosemary and a spoonful of salt, its two pinches of salt and one pound of garlic!" Remy said with a small sigh as he ran off to help correct the misguided members of his clan. Shera laughed slightly as she watched the little rat run off.

"Good luck Remy, see you at dinner." The pilot of the rebuilt ship said quickly as she turned back to the group. "Well, let's get going, there are a lot of other people on this ship you should meet." She said, the nine travelers nodding as they let Shera lead them out of the room, and down another corridor. Shera walked along for a few minutes until, suddenly, one of the doors in the hallway opened, a bunch of hospital tools being thrown out of the room and onto the floor.

"Now dat dose are out of de way, it is time to begin installing my latest equipment!" A somewhat high pitched, if zany, voice exclaimed from inside the room, as the door quickly slid shut once again. Shera sweat dropped as she turned back to the group, a sheepish expression on her face while the new members of the ship merely stared at the equipment with raised eyebrows, Donald himself looking a little puzzled.

"Well, it looks like our doctor is getting rather excited again..." Shera said as she prepared to continue, before Lloyd suddenly shouted.

"Hey, what's that?!?!" Lloyd interrupted as he pointed over by the medical equipment, everyone immediately looking at the junked tools. What Lloyd was screaming over was something that looked like a little tiny metal box that was moving around on tank treads, had little tiny arms at its side, and had a long, thin metal pole coming out of the box's top, with a rectangular object on top of the pole that had two glass lens on the end of one part of the rectangle, acting, seemingly, as eyes. The little box began cleaning up the medical equipment, shoving them into a small opening in its chest while Shera smiling at the little robot as she waved over to it.

"That, Lloyd, is the ship's janitor." Shera said as the tiny robot stopped in its actions, turning on its treads to face the group. The little robot waved over at them, the group following Shera just weakly waving back. "Hello Wall-E." The pilot said with a smile.

"Wa-all-E!" The little robot said back, the grin on Lloyd growing as a similar grin formed on Sora's Ed's, and Naruto's face.

"Cool!" The four younger members of the group declared, while Shera merely chuckled at their show of enthusiasm. Suddenly, Wall-E's head stopped, and quickly turned left and right, before settling on the corridor just behind the group. In a matter of seconds, a small, white, ovular shaped object flew over the heads of the group, flying over towards Wall-E. The little robot swung his arms around excitedly, as slowly two little flaps came off the side of the white oval, a black screen that had been on the front of the white oval lighting up with two, thick blue lines, representing eyes.

"E-E-EVUH!" Wall-E exclaimed as the white robot, E-ve, brought one of her flaps to her front, seemingly giggling into it as her eyes curved slightly.

"Wall-E." E-ve responded to the little bot. Shera smiled as she walked over to E-ve.

"Before you ask, this is E-ve, a scout robot Cid built to go along with the ship. Her job will be to float out in front of the Highwind II, and inform us when another world is near, or when there's an imminent threat to the ship." Shera said while Wall-E and E-ve continued their little conversation. The rest of the group laughed a little, as Goofy chimed in.

"Gawrsh, looks like these two have gotten rather friendly." The knight said as Shera nodded.

"Yes, they have." Shera comment idly as E-ve, after a few moments, flew off, Wall-E finishing up the cleaning of the supplies, regaining Shera's attention. "Anyway, the person who threw those was likely the ship's doctor." Shera said as she walked over to the door, opening it for the travelers. The entire group walked in one after the other, the back of the room obscured by a large veil that came down from the ceiling. When a drill was thrown from the other side of the veil, which Inuyasha had to duck to avoid, a brown-haired girl wearing a white and blue dress, walked backwards through the veil, her hands up as she looked worriedly through the veil.

"Please, sir, this equipment is still usable." The girl said as Shera coughed, the young girl turning to see the group, taken a back by their sudden appearance. "Oh, umm... hello." She said, bowing her head a bit as Shera laughed a little.

"Hello Yuna." Shera said, looking back at the veil. "Looks like he's at it again, eh?" The pilot enquired as Yuna merely nodded, Shera laughing again. "Must be tough at times to be his assistant." Shera joked as Donald stepped forward.

"Say... Shera... who is the doctor you all chose?" Donald asked cautiously, already suspecting a certain relative of his. Before Shera could answer, however, a small explosion rocked the area on the otherside of the veil, large plumes of smoke coming out from behind the veil.

"OH HO HO HO HO HO HO!" Raucous laughter was heard from the otherside of the veil as movement became apparent. "Yuna, did you feel dat?" The same voice from earlier rang out, as suddenly a white duck, though covered in soot, came out from behind the veil. Under the soot, an old brown vest underneath a brown coat, his glasses' frame crooked and somewhat snapped. Donald suddenly groaned when he saw the duck, as said duck began cleaning a pair of spectacles.

"It must have been some pretty bad wiring in de..." The duck began as he put back on the spectacles after cleaning them, the duck's eyes widening a bit as he looked at the group. At first, he merely looked interested by the new people, before his eyes settled on Donald. Said eyes sparkled a bit in recognition as the bespectacled duck ran over and hugged Donald.

"Oooooh! Nephew, it is so vunderful to see you!" The new duck said as the entire group looked down at Donald, who merely sighed as he hugged his uncle back.

"Hello Uncle von Drake...." Donald said... before suddenly going off, shaking his Uncle off of him. "What are you doing here, when did you learn about medicine?!" The mage shouted back at Ludwig von Drake, who merely tapped his chin.

"Well, maybe it was the time in between studying chemistry and psychology... or maybe in between engineering and physics..." Ludwig began thinking, as Yuna jumped in.

"You see, Mister Donald, Docto-"

"Professor!" Ludwig suddenly said while Yuna was speaking, before continuing trying to figure out when he studied medicine.

"Sorry, Professor von Drake." Yuna said with a respectful bow, before once again facing Donald. "Professor von Drake learned medicine a while back... and since I couldn't finish my studies back at Radia... well, my world, Professor von Drake took me under his wing." Yuna said, Drake laughing as he pointed to his hand, adding a 'Literally' as she finished.

"Right." Shera said, facing the others. "For what its worth, Yuna here was a part of the SeeD program back on our old world. SeeD was a small force created by our world's leader in order to help protect it from various threats to our safety. You've met a lot of people who were a part of the program: Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, and even Cid were part of it." Shera said, putting a hand on Yuna's shoulder.

"When we were forced to leave our home, some of the younger members of SeeD weren't able to finish the training in their fields." Shera added, the nine giving Yuna a sympathetic look.

"Still, Professor Drake has been a very good teacher... if a little eccentric." Yuna said with a small laugh, as the guys finally noticed that von Drake was poking Donald's head.

"So, nephew, are you still troubled?" Ludwig asked in a curious tone, as Donald merely grumbled in response. "Oh, so you are... maybe I should retry my treatment." The genius duck said in a cool tone... which quickly caused Donald to panic, and run quickly, squawking loudly as he tried to get away. The people in the room sweat dropped at Donald's action, as Ludwig merely shook his head.

"Poor, poor nephew... he is a depressed duck, and no one likes a depressed duck... well, unless you like de pressed duck." Ludwig said as he began laughing quite loudly, as Yusuke also began laughing along with Ludwig, the teen gaining rather questioning looks from the rest of the group who didn't quite understand the joke.

"Y-you see... pressed duck is a food and..." Yusuke began trying to explain, while the others still just looked at him like a nut. "Uh... nevermind..." Yusuke relented as he just stood back a bit.

**CRASH!**

"AH!_ Fryd dra ralg?! Fryd zicd nyh ehdu sa?! TEA TEA TEA!!!_"

The loud crash was quicky followed up by the sudden scream of terror, which was also followed up with loud banging sounds that rung out with the repetition of the word '_tea_'. Shera suddenly sweat dropped as she began moving through the group, trying to get through the door as quickly as she could.

"Oh dear..." Shera muttered as she ran by the group, heading down the same corridor Donald had run. The remainder of the group looked nervously at one and the other before running after Shera, leaving a parting 'goodbye' with Yuna and von Drake before they did.

When they finally caught up with Shera, the group was treated with a sight that sent Inuyasha, Yusuke, Edward, and Naruto into fits of laughter. Unconscious on the ground was Donald Duck, the Court Magician of Disney Castle, with three large lumps on his head, little stars circling around them. To his left was a small blond girl that sat on her rear, wearing an orange sleeve-less shirt that slightly exposed her stomach along with a pair of green shorts. The girl was taking in somewhat deep breaths, a wrench kept close to her as she looked up at Shera with a somewhat surprised look on her face. After a moment the surprised was replaced with a nervous grin, as she rubbed the back of her head with the wrench.

"Hehehe... Oops." The blond girl said as Shera just shook her head, looking back at the group.

"Sorry about that, by the looks of it Donald ran into our assistant engineer while she was fixing up some wiring." Shera said. Goofy helped Donald back to his feet, while Shera helping the girl off of from the floor. "Everyone, meet Rikku." Shera said as, quickly, Sora's head snapped to attention.

"Rikku?" Sora asked as a flashback to... Riku, back on the islands. Sora's eyes became somewhat distant as Rikku leaned forward a bit, snapping her fingers in his face, snapping the Keyblade Master out of his trance. "Huh?"

"Yes, that's my name." Rikku said quite simply, as Sora blinked a few times, before laughing nervously.

"Oh, alright, cool. I-I have a friend named Riku..." Sora said somewhat shakily as Rikku laughed a bit.

"Cool." The Al-Bhed girl said as Shera smiled.

"Rikku here was a part of a community of Al-Bhed back in our world, excellent engineers and builders." Shera explained as she looked down at the bunch of wires Rikku had been working on. "So, wiring again?" Shera asked as Rikku nodded in an annoyed fashion.

"Yeah, Chip, Dale and I wanted to check out all of the wiring before the launch." Rikku explained, as Goofy immediately jumped in.

"Gawrsh, Chip 'n' Dale are here?" The dog knight asked as Rikku nodded.

"Yeah, they're the main engineers aboard the ship while Cid stays back in Traverse Town." Rikku explained as she tapped her chin. "Oh! By the way, Shera, Jiminy wants you and these guys in the archive room to get some preliminary notes written." The assistant engineer added as Shera nodded.

"Alright, I'll take them there immediately." Shera said quickly as she quickly guided the group away, Rikku going right back to work checking the wiring.

"Jiminy's here too?" Goofy asked, with Shera nodding.

"Well, of course. As Disney Castle's library keeper he was responsible for vast stores of knowledge before. When a crew was considered for the ship we thought it'd be good if we had someone to keep information about certain worlds and the people in them in an organized manner... Jiminy was a natural choice." Shera explained as Goofy nodded, the rest of the group wondering just who this Jiminy fellow would be.

"Maybe it'll be another talking animal... like an owl..." Lloyd whispered over to Kenshin, whom merely nodded in return.

"Indeed, who else would keep watch over a library?" Kenshin whispered back, as the rest of the group simply discussed amongst themselves who it might be. Goofy, however, remained silent, chuckling to himself as he carried Donald around. Goofy knew who Jiminy was, he just thought it'd be funny to surprise the group with Jiminy's stature.

Shera led the group to yet another door, sliding it open to reveal a very nice looking room. It looked like an old fashion library, with old wooden shelves and wooden looking walls and floors. The group looked stunned at the library... before noticing something out of place.

"... Where are all the books?" Sora asked suddenly as the group walked up to the empty shelves, scanning them for even a single book.

"Well stranger, that's cause I haven't been able to get any written down yet." A lone voice rang out in the room, the guys looking around for the invisible voice.

"Huh, where'd the voice come from?" Naruto asked suddenly as he looked around, everyone equally perplexed. Inuyasha's ears perked as the half-demon quickly snapped his forefinger and thumb together, pulling his hand up to his face to look at his catch.

"I think I found the source." Inuyasha said quite simply as the others gathered around Inuyasha, looking closely at his forefinger and thumb. What they saw surprised them yet again, as between the grip of his digits was a black tuxedo coat, and wearing that coat was a small green cricket, wearing a blue top hat, black pants, and a pair of nice black shoes. The cricket smiled at the assembled group, chuckling as he tipped his hat at them.

"Greetings everyone: Cricket's the name, Jiminy Cricket." Jiminy said with a small smile, as Yusuke just sweat dropped.

"Suddenly, rats as cooks doesn't sound so ridiculous anymore...." The spirit detective said in a dull manner, Jiminy working his coat out of Inuyasha grip as he used his umbrella to float back down to the floor.

"Gawrsh, Jiminy's a real good archivist; he kept the records at our home just fine." Goofy was quick to defend his tiny friend, who just then landed on the floor.

"Goofy's right, King Mickey himself hired me to write the records, you all can depend on me." Jiminy said with a curt bow as Shera smiled at the small cricket. A moment later, the door slid open again, and one of Remy's cousins made his way through it.

"Hey, dinner'll be ready in a few minutes." The rat said quickly, leaving almost as soon as he arrived. Shera nodded as she looked towards the group.

"Well, you all should know where the kitchen is. I'll meet you there as soon as I launch the ship." Shera said plainly as the nine and Jiminy nodded, going off towards the kitchen while Shera began heading towards the main deck, arriving in only a matter of minutes.

Cid had actually managed to salvage the old deck from the Highwind, and was able to convert its inner-workings to function with the Highwind II, while still having the look of the old Highwind, the old pilot and engineer firmly wanting at least this much of the ship to be exactly the same as the original.

Shera got up towards the controls and began initiating the launch sequence, a voice blaring over the hanger's intercoms.

"Shera, we've finished our check-up of the ship's systems, and everything's a-okay!" Dale said over the intercom as Shera nodded.

"Thanks Dale." Shera said as she nearly completed the intial launch sequence, only to be interrupted by Cid's voice suddenly blaring over the intercom.

"Hey, Shera." Cid's voice could be heard, garnering the attention of his wife. "Be careful out there." The old pilot said simply as Shera smiled.

"I will." Shera said back to her husband as a small sigh could be heard on the other end of the line, the hanger bay doors opening a short while afterwards. The woman pilot sighed as she fired up the engines, while the propellers also began to spin, and the bottom row of engines helped elevate the Highwind II from the base of the hanger. With a deep breath Shera fired off the main engines, sending the Highwind II propelling forward through the hanger doors, blasting off into Gummi Space for the first time. As the ship flew off, Shera could see E-ve begin floating in front of the ship, stationing herself about 2,000 feet away from the ship's edge. Shera looked down at the console and picked up a small radio, lifting the antenna before speaking into it.

"E-ve? Would you mind sending me back a view of Traverse Town?" Shera requested curtly, as Eve slowly turned her body, and moved slightly above the top of the ship. Within quick succession a screen on the dashboard began to light up, and then an image of the quickly fading image of Traverse Town made its way to the screen, the tiny little world slowly seeming even smaller than before as the Highwind II propelled itself away.

"Thanks E-ve." Shera said back into the radio as she checked over the status of the ship, and finding everything to be in top condition, as Dale. "The Highwind II should keep on track with you till we approach the nearest world. Be sure to alert us if anything happens before we reach it." Shera ordered, as Eve responded by flying to a level position with the bay, still a few thousand feet away from the actual ship. Shera placed the radio down as she began walking back towards the kitchen, wondering if the group managed to cause any trouble before she would get there.

-Highwind II – Dining Hall-

"Jeez, when's Remy going to be done already, he sent us here five minutes ago... it took less time for Shera to launch the ship..." Rikku groaned and complained as her stomach gargled in agreement with the hungry Al-Bhed, everyone on the ship, save Remy and his cousins, were assembled around a long table in a large dining area. Even Donald was sitting at the table... albeit slumped down unconscious, seeing as how Goofy couldn't wake him up.

"My, my nephew, dat is very poor posture, you must sit up und straight." Ludwig berated his unconscious relative, not quite catching that Donald was completely unconscious.

"Ummm... Professor..." Yuna began, as suddenly she was interrupted by Shera finally joining the group in the hall.

"Hey there Shera, great launch." Chip said to the pilot, Dale nodding right along.

"Hehe-yup, barely felt a thing! Dale added, Shera just laughing a bit as she nodded her head.

"Thanks, but it was Cid's work with the ship that's making it run so nice." Shera insisted as she sat down herself, Remy and his cousins suddenly coming into the room, wheeling in trays that were carrying the most wonderfully smelling foods anyone in the room had ever taken in. The aroma was so great, that Donald suddenly snapped to attention, practically drooling already.

"Oh boy oh boy oh boy!" Donald said as he watched Remy and his cousins began placing the covered plates of food onto the table.

"Alright boys, since most of you have never eaten my clan's cooking before, we decided to go with a selection that would knock your taste buds out of the park." Remy said as he walked over to one of the covered plates. "We're starting you off with some 'pot au feu'." Remy said as the rats pulled off the first cover, revealing a large bowl of beef stew with many different vegetables, including carrots, broccoli, and lettuce tossed into the strew.

"Oh that looks good..." Lloyd said, the young man practically drooling over his own plate.

"Follow that up with some 'boudin blanc'." The rat chef said as yet another plate's lid was peeled off, revealing several flavored sausages.

"Vunderful!" Ludwig immediately said, watching Remy walk down the table.

"Of course we have some good bread, fine salads, and some nice soups for you all to try." Remy said, as plate lid after plate lid was pulled off of their respective plates, revealing said foods in order. "Add in one of my favorites, some ratatouille." Remy said as his cousins immediately revealed said dish.

"Oh, and the main part of the course." Remy said as he slowly walked up to the largest of the plates with the largest cover, everyone leaning in to see. "Big hand to my brother who decided on the main dish... he hasn't even told me what he asked to be cooked. So, let's see what the other magnificent chefs have cooked up for us." Remy said as he, along with several other members of his clan, pulled off the lid.

The dish underneath the lid caused many in the room to sweat drop, while Donald's and Ludwig's jaws dropped, and Remy had a somewhat horrified look on his face.

His brother had prepared for the main course... pressed duck.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Oh yes, times on this ship and for the people inside of it were only just beginning to get interesting.....

---------- Authors' Notes ---------

Al-Bhed Translations:

_Fryd dra ralg?! Fryd zicd nyh ehdu sa?! TEA TEA TEA!!!_

What the heck?! What just ran into me?! DIE DIE DIE!!!

Remy's Meals:

pot au feu- as said in decription, its basically mixed vegetable beef stew with a nice broth.  
boudin blanc- once again description really says it all: its bratwurst (or sausage, not completely sure) flavored with various fancy flavorings.  
ratatouille- basically a stewed vegetable dish usually served with bread or rice, or just as a side.

Greetings, from Zoneshifter D. I hope you've enjoyed our latest installment in this wacky story of ours. See ya next chapter.

R&R


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